Models of everywhere revisited: a technological perspective

The concept ‘models of everywhere’ was first introduced in the mid 2000s as a means of reasoning about the environmental science of a place, changing the nature of the underlying modelling process, from one in which general model structures are used to one in which modelling becomes a learning process about specific places, in particular capturing the idiosyncrasies of that place. At one level, this is a straightforward concept, but at another it is a rich multi-dimensional conceptual framework involving the following key dimensions: models of everywhere, models of everything and models at all times, being constantly re-evaluated against the most current evidence. This is a compelling approach with the potential to deal with epistemic uncertainties and nonlinearities. However, the approach has, as yet, not been fully utilised or explored. This paper examines the concept of models of everywhere in the light of recent advances in technology. The paper argues that, when first proposed, technology was a limiting factor but now, with advances in areas such as Internet of Things, cloud computing and data analytics, many of the barriers have been alleviated. Consequently, it is timely to look again at the concept of models of everywhere in practical conditions as part of a trans-disciplinary effort to tackle the remaining research questions. The paper concludes by identifying the key elements of a research agenda that should underpin such experimentation and deployment

Autonomic Execution of Computational Workflows

This paper describes the application of anautonomic paradigm to manage the complexity of softwaresystems such as computational workflows. To demonstrate ourapproach, the workflow and the services comprising it aretreated as managed resources controlled by hierarchicallyorganized autonomic managers. By applying service-orientedsoftware engineering principles, in particular enterpriseintegration patterns, we have developed a scalable, agile, selfhealingenvironment for execution of dynamic, data-drivenworkflows which are capable of assuring scientific fidelitydespite unavoidable faults and without human intervention

Ami-deu : un cadre sémantique pour des applications adaptables dans des environnements intelligents

Cette thèse vise à étendre l’utilisation de l'Internet des objets (IdO) en facilitant le développement d’applications par des personnes non experts en développement logiciel. La thèse propose une nouvelle approche pour augmenter la sémantique des applications d’IdO et l’implication des experts du domaine dans le développement d’applications sensibles au contexte. Notre approche permet de gérer le contexte changeant de l’environnement et de générer des applications qui s’exécutent dans plusieurs environnements intelligents pour fournir des actions requises dans divers contextes. Notre approche est mise en œuvre dans un cadriciel (AmI-DEU) qui inclut les composants pour le développement d’applications IdO. AmI-DEU intègre les services d’environnement, favorise l’interaction de l’utilisateur et fournit les moyens de représenter le domaine d’application, le profil de l’utilisateur et les intentions de l’utilisateur. Le cadriciel permet la définition d’applications IoT avec une intention d’activité autodécrite qui contient les connaissances requises pour réaliser l’activité. Ensuite, le cadriciel génère Intention as a Context (IaaC), qui comprend une intention d’activité autodécrite avec des connaissances colligées à évaluer pour une meilleure adaptation dans des environnements intelligents. La sémantique de l’AmI-DEU est basée sur celle du ContextAA (Context-Aware Agents) – une plateforme pour fournir une connaissance du contexte dans plusieurs environnements. Le cadriciel effectue une compilation des connaissances par des règles et l'appariement sémantique pour produire des applications IdO autonomes capables de s’exécuter en ContextAA. AmI- DEU inclut également un outil de développement visuel pour le développement et le déploiement rapide d'applications sur ContextAA. L'interface graphique d’AmI-DEU adopte la métaphore du flux avec des aides visuelles pour simplifier le développement d'applications en permettant des définitions de règles étape par étape. Dans le cadre de l’expérimentation, AmI-DEU comprend un banc d’essai pour le développement d’applications IdO. Les résultats expérimentaux montrent une optimisation sémantique potentielle des ressources pour les applications IoT dynamiques dans les maisons intelligentes et les villes intelligentes. Notre approche favorise l'adoption de la technologie pour améliorer le bienêtre et la qualité de vie des personnes. Cette thèse se termine par des orientations de recherche que le cadriciel AmI-DEU dévoile pour réaliser des environnements intelligents omniprésents fournissant des adaptations appropriées pour soutenir les intentions des personnes.Abstract: This thesis aims at expanding the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) by facilitating the development of applications by people who are not experts in software development. The thesis proposes a new approach to augment IoT applications’ semantics and domain expert involvement in context-aware application development. Our approach enables us to manage the changing environment context and generate applications that run in multiple smart environments to provide required actions in diverse settings. Our approach is implemented in a framework (AmI-DEU) that includes the components for IoT application development. AmI- DEU integrates environment services, promotes end-user interaction, and provides the means to represent the application domain, end-user profile, and end-user intentions. The framework enables the definition of IoT applications with a self-described activity intention that contains the required knowledge to achieve the activity. Then, the framework generates Intention as a Context (IaaC), which includes a self-described activity intention with compiled knowledge to be assessed for augmented adaptations in smart environments. AmI-DEU framework semantics adopts ContextAA (Context-Aware Agents) – a platform to provide context-awareness in multiple environments. The framework performs a knowledge compilation by rules and semantic matching to produce autonomic IoT applications to run in ContextAA. AmI-DEU also includes a visual tool for quick application development and deployment to ContextAA. The AmI-DEU GUI adopts the flow metaphor with visual aids to simplify developing applications by allowing step-by-step rule definitions. As part of the experimentation, AmI-DEU includes a testbed for IoT application development. Experimental results show a potential semantic optimization for dynamic IoT applications in smart homes and smart cities. Our approach promotes technology adoption to improve people’s well-being and quality of life. This thesis concludes with research directions that the AmI-DEU framework uncovers to achieve pervasive smart environments providing suitable adaptations to support people’s intentions

Self-managed Workflows for Cyber-physical Systems

Workflows are a well-established concept for describing business logics and processes in web-based applications and enterprise application integration scenarios on an abstract implementation-agnostic level. Applying Business Process Management (BPM) technologies to increase autonomy and automate sequences of activities in Cyber-physical Systems (CPS) promises various advantages including a higher flexibility and simplified programming, a more efficient resource usage, and an easier integration and orchestration of CPS devices. However, traditional BPM notations and engines have not been designed to be used in the context of CPS, which raises new research questions occurring with the close coupling of the virtual and physical worlds. Among these challenges are the interaction with complex compounds of heterogeneous sensors, actuators, things and humans; the detection and handling of errors in the physical world; and the synchronization of the cyber-physical process execution models. Novel factors related to the interaction with the physical world including real world obstacles, inconsistencies and inaccuracies may jeopardize the successful execution of workflows in CPS and may lead to unanticipated situations. This thesis investigates properties and requirements of CPS relevant for the introduction of BPM technologies into cyber-physical domains. We discuss existing BPM systems and related work regarding the integration of sensors and actuators into workflows, the development of a Workflow Management System (WfMS) for CPS, and the synchronization of the virtual and physical process execution as part of self-* capabilities for WfMSes. Based on the identified research gap, we present concepts and prototypes regarding the development of a CPS WFMS w.r.t. all phases of the BPM lifecycle. First, we introduce a CPS workflow notation that supports the modelling of the interaction of complex sensors, actuators, humans, dynamic services and WfMSes on the business process level. In addition, the effects of the workflow execution can be specified in the form of goals defining success and error criteria for the execution of individual process steps. Along with that, we introduce the notion of Cyber-physical Consistency. Following, we present a system architecture for a corresponding WfMS (PROtEUS) to execute the modelled processes-also in distributed execution settings and with a focus on interactive process management. Subsequently, the integration of a cyber-physical feedback loop to increase resilience of the process execution at runtime is discussed. Within this MAPE-K loop, sensor and context data are related to the effects of the process execution, deviations from expected behaviour are detected, and compensations are planned and executed. The execution of this feedback loop can be scaled depending on the required level of precision and consistency. Our implementation of the MAPE-K loop proves to be a general framework for adding self-* capabilities to WfMSes. The evaluation of our concepts within a smart home case study shows expected behaviour, reasonable execution times, reduced error rates and high coverage of the identified requirements, which makes our CPS~WfMS a suitable system for introducing workflows on top of systems, devices, things and applications of CPS.:1. Introduction 15 1.1. Motivation 15 1.2. Research Issues 17 1.3. Scope & Contributions 19 1.4. Structure of the Thesis 20 2. Workflows and Cyber-physical Systems 21 2.1. Introduction 21 2.2. Two Motivating Examples 21 2.3. Business Process Management and Workflow Technologies 23 2.4. Cyber-physical Systems 31 2.5. Workflows in CPS 38 2.6. Requirements 42 3. Related Work 45 3.1. Introduction 45 3.2. Existing BPM Systems in Industry and Academia 45 3.3. Modelling of CPS Workflows 49 3.4. CPS Workflow Systems 53 3.5. Cyber-physical Synchronization 58 3.6. Self-* for BPM Systems 63 3.7. Retrofitting Frameworks for WfMSes 69 3.8. Conclusion & Deficits 71 4. Modelling of Cyber-physical Workflows with Consistency Style Sheets 75 4.1. Introduction 75 4.2. Workflow Metamodel 76 4.3. Knowledge Base 87 4.4. Dynamic Services 92 4.5. CPS-related Workflow Effects 94 4.6. Cyber-physical Consistency 100 4.7. Consistency Style Sheets 105 4.8. Tools for Modelling of CPS Workflows 106 4.9. Compatibility with Existing Business Process Notations 111 5. Architecture of a WfMS for Distributed CPS Workflows 115 5.1. Introduction 115 5.2. PROtEUS Process Execution System 116 5.3. Internet of Things Middleware 124 5.4. Dynamic Service Selection via Semantic Access Layer 125 5.5. Process Distribution 126 5.6. Ubiquitous Human Interaction 130 5.7. Towards a CPS WfMS Reference Architecture for Other Domains 137 6. Scalable Execution of Self-managed CPS Workflows 141 6.1. Introduction 141 6.2. MAPE-K Control Loops for Autonomous Workflows 141 6.3. Feedback Loop for Cyber-physical Consistency 148 6.4. Feedback Loop for Distributed Workflows 152 6.5. Consistency Levels, Scalability and Scalable Consistency 157 6.6. Self-managed Workflows 158 6.7. Adaptations and Meta-adaptations 159 6.8. Multiple Feedback Loops and Process Instances 160 6.9. Transactions and ACID for CPS Workflows 161 6.10. Runtime View on Cyber-physical Synchronization for Workflows 162 6.11. Applicability of Workflow Feedback Loops to other CPS Domains 164 6.12. A Retrofitting Framework for Self-managed CPS WfMSes 165 7. Evaluation 171 7.1. Introduction 171 7.2. Hardware and Software 171 7.3. PROtEUS Base System 174 7.4. PROtEUS with Feedback Service 182 7.5. Feedback Service with Legacy WfMSes 213 7.6. Qualitative Discussion of Requirements and Additional CPS Aspects 217 7.7. Comparison with Related Work 232 7.8. Conclusion 234 8. Summary and Future Work 237 8.1. Summary and Conclusion 237 8.2. Advances of this Thesis 240 8.3. Contributions to the Research Area 242 8.4. Relevance 243 8.5. Open Questions 245 8.6. Future Work 247 Bibliography 249 Acronyms 277 List of Figures 281 List of Tables 285 List of Listings 287 Appendices 28

A Game-Theoretic Based QoS-Aware Capacity Management for Real-Time EdgeIoT Applications

More and more real-time IoT applications such as smart cities or autonomous vehicles require big data analytics with reduced latencies. However, data streams produced from distributed sensing devices may not suffice to be processed traditionally in the remote cloud due to: (i) longer Wide Area Network (WAN) latencies and (ii) limited resources held by a single Cloud. To solve this problem, a novel Software-Defined Network (SDN) based InterCloud architecture is presented for mobile edge computing environments, known as EdgeIoT. An adaptive resource capacity management approach is proposed to employ a policy-based QoS control framework using principles in coalition games with externalities. To optimise resource capacity policy, the proposed QoS management technique solves, adaptively, a lexicographic ordering bi-criteria Coalition Structure Generation (CSG) problem. It is an onerous task to guarantee in a deterministic way that a real-time EdgeIoT application satisfies low latency requirement specified in Service Level Agreements (SLA). CloudSim 4.0 toolkit is used to simulate an SDN-based InterCloud scenario, and the empirical results suggest that the proposed approach can adapt, from an operational perspective, to ensure low latency QoS for real-time EdgeIoT application instances

e-Business challenges and directions: important themes from the first ICE-B workshop

A three-day asynchronous, interactive workshop was held at ICE-B’10 in Piraeus, Greece in July of 2010. This event captured conference themes for e-Business challenges and directions across four subject areas: a) e-Business applications and models, b) enterprise engineering, c) mobility, d) business collaboration and e-Services, and e) technology platforms. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) methods were used to gather, organize and evaluate themes and their ratings. This paper summarizes the most important themes rated by participants: a) Since technology is becoming more economic and social in nature, more agile and context-based application develop methods are needed. b) Enterprise engineering approaches are needed to support the design of systems that can evolve with changing stakeholder needs. c) The digital native groundswell requires changes to business models, operations, and systems to support Prosumers. d) Intelligence and interoperability are needed to address Prosumer activity and their highly customized product purchases. e) Technology platforms must rapidly and correctly adapt, provide widespread offerings and scale appropriately, in the context of changing situational contexts

A framework for smart production-logistics systems based on CPS and industrial IoT

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has received increasing attention from both academia and industry. However, several challenges including excessively long waiting time and a serious waste of energy still exist in the IIoT-based integration between production and logistics in job shops. To address these challenges, a framework depicting the mechanism and methodology of smart production-logistics systems is proposed to implement intelligent modeling of key manufacturing resources and investigate self-organizing configuration mechanisms. A data-driven model based on analytical target cascading is developed to implement the self-organizing configuration. A case study based on a Chinese engine manufacturer is presented to validate the feasibility and evaluate the performance of the proposed framework and the developed method. The results show that the manufacturing time and the energy consumption are reduced and the computing time is reasonable. This paper potentially enables manufacturers to deploy IIoT-based applications and improve the efficiency of production-logistics systems