Separating Agent-Functioning and Inter-Agent Coordination by Activated Modules: The DECOMAS Architecture

The embedding of self-organizing inter-agent processes in distributed software applications enables the decentralized coordination system elements, solely based on concerted, localized interactions. The separation and encapsulation of the activities that are conceptually related to the coordination, is a crucial concern for systematic development practices in order to prepare the reuse and systematic integration of coordination processes in software systems. Here, we discuss a programming model that is based on the externalization of processes prescriptions and their embedding in Multi-Agent Systems (MAS). One fundamental design concern for a corresponding execution middleware is the minimal-invasive augmentation of the activities that affect coordination. This design challenge is approached by the activation of agent modules. Modules are converted to software elements that reason about and modify their host agent. We discuss and formalize this extension within the context of a generic coordination architecture and exemplify the proposed programming model with the decentralized management of (web) service infrastructures

Process of designing robust, dependable, safe and secure software for medical devices: Point of care testing device as a case study

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Copyright © 2013 Sivanesan Tulasidas et al. This paper presents a holistic methodology for the design of medical device software, which encompasses of a new way of eliciting requirements, system design process, security design guideline, cloud architecture design, combinatorial testing process and agile project management. The paper uses point of care diagnostics as a case study where the software and hardware must be robust, reliable to provide accurate diagnosis of diseases. As software and software intensive systems are becoming increasingly complex, the impact of failures can lead to significant property damage, or damage to the environment. Within the medical diagnostic device software domain such failures can result in misdiagnosis leading to clinical complications and in some cases death. Software faults can arise due to the interaction among the software, the hardware, third party software and the operating environment. Unanticipated environmental changes and latent coding errors lead to operation faults despite of the fact that usually a significant effort has been expended in the design, verification and validation of the software system. It is becoming increasingly more apparent that one needs to adopt different approaches, which will guarantee that a complex software system meets all safety, security, and reliability requirements, in addition to complying with standards such as IEC 62304. There are many initiatives taken to develop safety and security critical systems, at different development phases and in different contexts, ranging from infrastructure design to device design. Different approaches are implemented to design error free software for safety critical systems. By adopting the strategies and processes presented in this paper one can overcome the challenges in developing error free software for medical devices (or safety critical systems).Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

Adaptive management of applications across multiple clouds:the SeaClouds approach

How to deploy and manage, in an efficient and adaptive way, complex applications across multiple heterogeneous cloud platforms is one of the problems that have emerged with the cloud revolution. In this paper we present context, motivations and objectives of the EU research project SeaClouds, which aims at enabling a seamless adaptive multi-cloud management of complex applications by supporting the distribution, monitoring and migration of application modules over multiple heterogeneous cloud platforms. After positioning SeaClouds with respect to related cloud initiatives, we present the SeaClouds architecture and discuss some of its aspect, such as the use of the OASIS standard TOSCA and the compatibility with the OASIS CAMP initiative

Identifying and modelling complex workflow requirements in web applications

Workflow plays a major role in nowadays business and therefore its requirement elicitation must be accurate and clear for achieving the solution closest to business's needs. Due to Web applications popularity, the Web is becoming the standard platform for implementing business workflows. In this context, Web applications and their workflows must be adapted to market demands in such a way that time and effort are minimize. As they get more popular, they must give support to different functional requirements but also they contain tangled and scattered behaviour. In this work we present a model-driven approach for modelling workflows using a Domain Specific Language for Web application requirement called WebSpec. We present an extension to WebSpec based on Pattern Specifications for modelling crosscutting workflow requirements identifying tangled and scattered behaviour and reducing inconsistencies early in the cycle.Publicado en Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (vol. 7387).Facultad de InformáticaLaboratorio de Investigación y Formación en Informática Avanzad

Monitoring in fog computing: state-of-the-art and research challenges

Fog computing has rapidly become a widely accepted computing paradigm to mitigate cloud computing-based infrastructure limitations such as scarcity of bandwidth, large latency, security, and privacy issues. Fog computing resources and applications dynamically vary at run-time, and they are highly distributed, mobile, and appear-disappear rapidly at any time over the internet. Therefore, to ensure the quality of service and experience for end-users, it is necessary to comply with a comprehensive monitoring approach. However, the volatility and dynamism characteristics of fog resources make the monitoring design complex and cumbersome. The aim of this article is therefore three-fold: 1) to analyse fog computing-based infrastructures and existing monitoring solutions; 2) to highlight the main requirements and challenges based on a taxonomy; 3) to identify open issues and potential future research directions.This work has been (partially) funded by H2020 EU/TW 5G-DIVE (Grant 859881) and H2020 5Growth (Grant 856709). It has been also funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (TRUE5G project, PID2019-108713RB-C52 PID2019-108713RB-C52 / AEI / 10.13039/501100011033)

Internet of Things Software Modules Marketplace

The project developed is a centralised repository of software packages to be used in cyber-physical systems. It is composed by a central database, an http api, an ftp client to serve files and a web application to manage the repository. The system also communicates via OPCUA protocol with the embed-system for real time monitoring.The advent of the Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), a physical system representation through a vir-tual model, usually used to control a system or a process comes from the growing democratizationof the computational power. Nowadays, virtually anything can be equipped with some kind ofembedded processor to automate tasks, generate or consume some kind of data. In addition, thecontinuous development and improvement of the communication networks has helped leveragethe concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) in which things are now, themselves, connected to theInternet, exchanging data with each other and with people.In the industrial sector, CPS, also called Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) and theIoT are the main technological advances that lead to the industry fourth revolution, common des-ignated as Industry 4.0 in which the factory floor is no longer a centralized model where all thecomputation is done centrally but is now a decentralized model where industrial equipment haveembedded devices to control, automate tasks and react in a dynamic and intelligent manner to thesensed physical environment.Thereby, one of the keywords around the CPPSs is software. Software is no longer centralizedand is now distributed through several devices that comprises the system. This new approachcomes with significant changes and one of them is the reuse and distribution of the software. Itis not viable to manual deploy and install software in hundreds or thousands of devices and nothaving a way of reusing the existing software. If, on the one hand, the desire is to develop a moreintelligent process control system, on the other, flexibility, adaptability and simplicity are alsoconvenient capabilities or else intelligent manufacturing process control systems are built upon alot of resources debt. Hence, the solution is to build standards, tools and frameworks that allowthe reuse of software and its rapid deployment in the distributed devices.One option, in the Industry 4.0 field, to cope with the software reuse issue in this kind of sys-tems is the encapsulation of software in functional blocks, the Function Blocks (FBs) and their usein the function block programming paradigm, described in IEC 61499 standard. The functionalityis abstracted away in the FBs and can be reused by just deploying the them to the devices. Thisway, it is easier to manage a network by dragging and dropping these blocks, building complexapplications centrally and deploy everything to the distributed embedded devices. However, theimplementation of this standard to address the aforementioned problem brings, itself, other neces-sities such as managing the FBs, monitoring them and their previous download by the embeddeddevices.This dissertation main goal is the development of a marketplace to manage and monitor of FBs in a IEC 61499 network envisioning the filling of the previous mentioned gaps in this kindof networks. The marketplace, integrated in a IEC 61499 global solution will not only enable thedistribution of FBs among the embedded devices in a IEC 61499 compliant CPPS but also manageFBs versions, functioning as a central repository of software components, having also monitoringand statistical features, allowing the detection of flaws or malfunctions and collect statistical datai iiabout FBs usage

A case studies approach to the analysis of profiling and framing structures for pervasive information systems

Model-Based/Driven Development (MDD) constitutes an approach to software design and development that potentially contributes to: concepts closer to domain and reduction of semantic gaps; automation and less sensitivity to technological changes; capture of expert knowledge and reuse. The widespread adoption of pervasive technologies as basis for new systems and applications, lead to the need of effectively design pervasive information systems that properly fulfil the goals they were designed for. This paper presents a profiling and framing structure approach for the development of Pervasive Information Systems (PIS). This profiling and framing structure allows the organization of the functionality that can be assigned to computational devices in a system and of the corresponding development structures and models, being. The proposed approach enables a structural approach to PIS development. The paper also presents two case studies that allowed demonstrating the applicability of the approach.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT