Declarative Transport: No More Transport Protocols to Design, Only Policies to Specify

Transport protocols are an integral part of the inter-process communication (IPC) service used by application processes to communicate over the network infrastructure. With almost 30 years of research on transport, one would have hoped that we have a good handle on the problem. Unfortunately, that is not true. As the Internet continues to grow, new network technologies and new applications continue to emerge putting transport protocols in a never-ending flux as they are continuously adapted for these new environments. In this work, we propose a clean-slate transport architecture that renders all possible transport solutions as simply combinations of policies instantiated on a single common structure. We identify a minimal set of mechanisms that once instantiated with the appropriate policies allows any transport solution to be realized. Given our proposed architecture, we contend that there are no more transport protocols to design—only policies to specify. We implement our transport architecture in a declarative language, Network Datalog (NDlog), making the specification of different transport policies easy, compact, reusable, dynamically configurable and potentially verifiable. In NDlog, transport state is represented as database relations, state is updated/queried using database operations, and transport policies are specified using declarative rules. We identify limitations with NDlog that could potentially threaten the correctness of our specification. We propose several language extensions to NDlog that would significantly improve the programmability of transport policies.NSF (CISE/CNF 0820138, CISE/CNS 070604, CISE/CNS 0524477, CNS/ITR 0205294, CISE/EIA RI 0202067

Enterprise Modelling: A Declarative Approach for FBPML

The University of Edinburgh and research sponsors are authorised to reproduce and distribute reprints and on-line copies for their purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation hereon. The views and conclusions contained herein are the author’s and shouldn’t be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of other parties.Enterprise Modelling (EM) methods are well-recognised for their value in describing complex, informal domains in an organised structure. EM methods are used in practice, particularly during the early stages of software system development, e.g. during the phase of business requirements elicitation. The built model, however, has not always provided direct input to software system development. Despite the provision of adequate training to understand and use EM methods, informality is often seen in enterprise models and presents a major obstacle. This paper focuses on one type of EM methods: business process modelling (BPM) methods. We advocate the use of a BPM language within a three-layer framework. The BPM language merges two main and complimentary business process representations, IDEF3 and PSL, to introduce a Fundamental Business Process Modelling Language (FBPML) that is designed for simplicity of use and under-pinned by rich formality that may be used directly to support software and workflow system development

Managing Product Life Cycle Data Using Automatic Identification

Kuluttajat ja lainsäätäjät vaativat yhä tarkempaa tietoa tuotteiden alkuperästä ja ympäristökuormituksesta. Yhä monimutkaisemmiksi käyvät tuotteiden tuotantoketjut ovat haasteellisia tämän tiedon keräämisen kannalta. Tuotantoketjussa voi olla satoja eri alihankkijoita sekä lukuisia jatkojalostajia. Tähän asti yleisin tapa laskea tuotteen elinkaaren ympäristövaikutukset on ollut mitata resurssien ja energian käyttö prosesseissa sekä prosessien päästöt ilmaan, maahan ja veteen esimerkiksi vuoden jaksolla ja käyttää saatua lukua keskiarvona kaikille tuotetuille tuotteille. Tämä väitös esittää mallin, joka mahdollistaa yksittäisen tuotteen elinkaaren seuraamisen ja sen elinkaari-informaation keräämisen sekä tämän informaation jakamisen. Esitettyä mallia voidaan käyttää pohjana kehitettäessä luotettava järjestelmä tuotteiden ympäristövaikutusten mittaamiseen ja tämän tiedon jakamiseen kuluttajille. Näin kuluttajat voivat tehdä ostopäätöksensä oikean ja tarkan tiedon perusteella. Työssä on tarkasteltu metsäteollisuutta esimerkkitapauksena, jossa tuotteiden ja komponenttien tunnistaminen perustuu RFID-tekniikkaan. Automaattinen tunnistaminen mahdollistaa jopa yksittäisen tuotteen seuraamisen koko tuotantoketjun läpi ja tarkan elinkaari-informaation keräämisen. Tätä informaatiota käyttämällä yksittäiselle tuotteelle voidaan laskea tarkka ympäristövaikutus.Managing the life cycle of products is becoming more and more important. Organizations are facing increasing pressure from consumers and legislators to accurately measure and manage the environmental impact of products. However, the complexities of today s supply chains pose a challenge for gathering accurate data throughout the life cycle of the product. The life cycle of a product can be defined as a network of entities responsible for the procurement, manufacturing and distribution of the product. In order to enable tracing through the dynamic supply chain, the products must be identified. The development of automatic identification enables us to identify each object in the supply chain and trace it through the complex and dynamic supply chain where each organization manages a part of the chain. Thanks to traceability, we can connect the information about the products' movements with the information about processes. In other words, we can allocate the properties of the processes to the actual product instances involved in each process. To be able to store the life cycle information of products, we must have a model that enables the allocation of life cycle information to the traced product throughout the supply chain. This dissertation defines such a model (traceability graph) that can be used to allocate life cycle information from processes to individual products. Further, the model enables multidimensional analyzes of data associated with the life cycle information of products and their components. The dissertation also specifies a solution for collecting, storing and sharing life cycle information about the product throughout its life cycle, enabling consumers to make educated choices based on accurate information regarding products they are purchasing. The method enables supply chain stakeholders to exchange life cycle information by utilizing the EPCGlobal Network architecture. The case example used in this dissertation is environmental impact information. In recent times, consumers and legislators have become increasingly interested in the environmental impacts of products throughout their life cycle. The biggest challenge with measuring the environmental impact is the fact that supply chains are complex and dynamic. A manufacturer can use various subcontractors and supply various end manufacturers or retailers in different countries. So far, the most common method of calculating the environmental impact of a product has been to measure the resources used, emissions and production for a certain period of time and then calculate the average environmental impact of the product. This work provides methods to monitor environmental performance even at a product level

Formal Definition of Traceability Graph

Data-centric workflows focus on how the data is transferred between processes and how it is logically stored. In addition to traditional workflow analysis, these can be applied to monitoring, tracing, and analyzing data in processes and their mutual relationships. In many applications, e.g. manufacturing, the tracing of products thorough entire lifecycle is becoming more and more important. In the present paper we define the traceability graph that involves a framework for data that adapts to different levels of precision of tracing. Advanced analyzing requires modeling of data in processes and methods for accumulating resources and emissions thorough the lifecycle of products. The traceability graph enables tracing and accumulation of resources, emissions and other information associated with products. The traceability graph is formally defined by set theory that is an established and exact specification method

Formal Definition of Traceability Graph

Data-centric workflows focus on how the data is transferred between processes and how it is logically stored. In addition to traditional workflow analysis, these can be applied to monitoring, tracing, and analyzing data in processes and their mutual relationships. In many applications, e.g. manufacturing, the tracing of products thorough entire lifecycle is becoming more and more important. In the present paper we define the traceability graph that involves a framework for data that adapts to different levels of precision of tracing. Advanced analyzing requires modeling of data in processes and methods for accumulating resources and emissions thorough the lifecycle of products. The traceability graph enables tracing and accumulation of resources, emissions and other information associated with products. The traceability graph is formally defined by set theory that is an established and exact specification method

(I) A Declarative Framework for ERP Systems(II) Reactors: A Data-Driven Programming Model for Distributed Applications

To those who can be swayed by argument and those who know they do not have all the answers This dissertation is a collection of six adapted research papers pertaining to two areas of research. (I) A Declarative Framework for ERP Systems: • POETS: Process-Oriented Event-driven Transaction Systems. The paper describes an ontological analysis of a small segment of the enterprise domain, namely the general ledger and accounts receivable. The result is an event-based approach to designing ERP systems and an abstract-level sketch of the architecture. • Compositional Specification of Commercial Contracts. The paper de-scribes the design, multiple semantics, and use of a domain-specific lan-guage (DSL) for modeling commercial contracts. • SMAWL: A SMAll Workflow Language Based on CCS. The paper show