Organic Computing Middleware for Ubiquitous Environments

• Start date: 01.07.2005
• End date: 31.12.2013
• Funded by: DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
• Local head of project: Prof. Dr. Theo Ungerer

 

Abstract

In this research project a ubiquitous middleware is developed that fulfils some demands of Organic/Autonomic Computing. Future computer systems should be able to adapt to changing environments at runtime and should have so called self-x features like self-configuration, self-optimization, self-healing, and self-protection. Another property of these systems are context awareness and anticipation to react accordingly to changing conditions.

 

 

Description

What are Ubiquitous Systems?

Ubiquitous systems are the upcoming third generation of computer systems. In the first generation, that of Mainframe computers, many people used one computer. Currently we are in the the area of personal computers where every user has one dedicated computer. Next will be the area of ubiquitous computing systems where humans are surrounded by many small computers, which are invisible, trying to support everyday live. This is where the name "ubiquitous" (everywhere) comes from.

 

The results of this research area are supposed to radically change all parts of human life. Examples from the unlimited application field stem from medical technology, care guidance systems, and intelligent home environments. Research areas can be found in the system design (hardware, firmware, and middleware), context awareness (creation, storage, processing, and delivery of place-dependent context information), and the communication between devices (protocols, security).

 

What is an Organic Ubiquitous Middleware?

The term middleware denotes a software residing between the operating system and the application. A middleware normally offers services used to simplify the development of applications by providing interfaces (APIs) and communication mechanisms.

 

Beyond that, a ubiquitous middleware must be able to communication with a variety of different devices and components, which need special attention for their integration and communication mechanisms due to the heterogeneity. Moreover, ubiquitous applications need special services like location tracking and context-information, which must be provided application independent. These services are based on a huge amount of heterogeneous components (e.g. different sensor types).

 

An Organic Ubiquitous Middleware meets the requirements of both, the Ubiquitous and the Organic Computing. The middleware employs techniques like self-configuration, self-optimization, self-protection, and self-healing to become self-manageable and to adopt autonomously to most environmental changes. Furthermore, the architecture of the middleware is designed with the requirements of ubiquitous systems in mind.

 

We are currently working on the realization and implementation of such a middleware with the following self-x features.

 

Self-healing

The task of self-healing is to assure that a system meets some defined conditions as far as possible. In our case we have to guarantee that all services running within the middleware stay available, even in the case of partial outages in the system. Our self-healing architecture basically consists of a component that is responsible for the detection of unwanted conditions and a facility that allows for a recovery from these conditions. Additionally a distributed datastore service is provided to enable crashed services to recover their last state.

 

Self-protection

Our human body is well protected by antibodies from our immune system. This protection system matured over millions of years and has proven its functionality. In our research we are going to transfer the techniques of a biological immune system to a computer based environment. Our goal is to design a self-protecting middleware which isn't vulnerable to malicious events.

 

Self-configuration

Ubiquitous and embedded systems may be comprised of a huge amount of different devices. The software deployment on such systems is a challenging task. Future systems are expected to use so much devices that it would be impossible for a system administrator to configure them individually. On the other hand applications for these systems will consist of a collection of services which should run on the different nodes of the network. It is known to be a NP-hard problem to find an optimal solution for the distribution of the services on the nodes, such that the quality of service (QoS) is optimal in terms of some predefined parameters. Our idea of a self-organized and fully distributed self-configuration is based on the cooperative social behavior known from groups which collaborate to solve a problem. Every member of the group can decide which part of the problem it can solve and which QoS it can provide.

 

Self-optimization

The self-configuration is responsible to find a good distribution of the services in terms of the given resources of the service description. The real runtime behavior of an application is often supposed to behave different from the developer expectations. So, it is enough to find an adequate configuration at the beginning and to optimize the application during runtime.

 

 

Publications

2013

 

• DHT Broadcast Optimisation with ID Assignment Rules
  Michael Roth, Julia Schmitt, Florian Kluge, Theo Ungerer
  Workshop on Embedded Self-Organizing Systems (ESOS 2013)

 

2012

 

• Information Dissemination in Distributed Organic Computing Systems with Distributed Hash Tables
  Michael Roth, Julia Schmitt, Florian Kluge, Theo Ungerer
  Proceedings of the 10th IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing (EUC 2012)

 

2011

 

• Autonomous and Scalable Failure Detection in Distributed Systems
  Benjamin Satzger, Andreas Pietzowski, Theo Ungerer
  International Journal of Autonomous and Adaptive Communications Systems, 4:61-77, December 2011.

 

• Using an Automated Planner to Control an Organic Middleware
  Julia Schmitt, Michael Roth, Rolf Kiefhaber, Florian Kluge, Theo Ungerer
  Proceedings of the Fifth IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO 2011), pages 71-78

 

• Concept of a Reflex Manager to Enhance the Planner Component of an Autonomic/Organic System
  Julia Schmitt, Michael Roth, Rolf Kiefhaber, Florian Kluge, Theo Ungerer
  Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Autonomic and Trusted Computing (ATC 2011), pages 19-30

 

• Realizing Self-x Properties by an Automated Planner
  Julia Schmitt, Michael Roth, Rolf Kiefhaber, Florian Kluge, Theo Ungerer
  Poster of the 8th International Conference on Autonomic Computing (ICAC 2011)

 

• Organic Computing Middleware for Ubiquitous Environments
  Michael Roth, Julia Schmitt, Rolf Kiefhaber, Florian Kluge, Theo Ungerer
  Organic Computing — A Paradigm Shift for Complex Systems, pages 339-351

 

2010

 

• Towards Lightweight Self-Configuration in Wireless Sensor Networks
  Benjamin Satzger, Faruk Bagci, Florian Kluge, Theo Ungerer
  25th ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC '10), Sierre, Switzerland, March 22 - 26, 2010

 

2009

 

• A Practical Computer Immunology Approach for Self-Protection Enhanced by Optimization Techniques
  Andreas Pietzowski, Benjamin Satzger, Wolfgang Trumler, Theo Ungerer
  Journal of Autonomic and Trusted Computing (JoATC), planned for 2009 (to appear)

 

• Towards trustworthy self-optimization for distributed systems
  Benjamin Satzger, Florian Mutschelknaus, Faruk Bagci, Florian Kluge, Theo Ungerer
  Seventh IFIP Workshop on Software Technologies for Future Embedded and Ubiquitous Systems (SEUS), pages 58-68, Nov 16-18, 2009, Newport Beach, USA
  Published in "Lecture Notes in Computer Science" (LNCS), ISSN: 0302-9743

 

2008

• Self-healing distributed systems

Benjamin Satzger
Dissertation, University of Augsburg
Examiner: Prof. Dr. Theo Ungerer
Co-examiner: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Bauer

 

• Entwicklung und Implementierung eines Trust-Modells für selbstkonfigurierende und selbstoptimierende verteilte Systeme
  Florian Mutschelknaus
  Diplomarbeit

 

• Selbstschutz in Organic- und Ubiquitous-Middleware-Systemen unter Verwendung von Computer-Immunologie
  Andreas Pietzowski
  Dissertation, Universität Augsburg
  Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Theo Ungerer
  Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Bauer

 

• Grouping Algorithms for Scalable Self-Monitoring Distributed Systems
  Benjamin Satzger and Theo Ungerer
  Autonomics 2008: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM/ICST International Conference on Autonomic Computing and Communication Systems, September 23-25, 2008, Turin, Italy
  ACM DOI

 

• Automatisches Planen für selbst-heilende verteilte Systeme
  Thorge Andersen
  Diplomarbeit

 

• Using Automated Planning for Trusted Self-organising Organic Computing Systems
  Benjamin Satzger, Andreas Pietzowski, Wolfgang Trumler, Theo Ungerer
  5th International Conference on Autonomic and Trusted Computing (ATC 2008), pages 60-72, Oslo, Norway, June 23-25, 2008
  Published in "Lecture Notes in Computer Science" (LNCS), ISSN: 0302-9743

 

• A Lazy Monitoring Approach for Heartbeat-Style Failure Detectors
  Benjamin Satzger, Andreas Pietzowski, Wolfgang Trumler, Theo Ungerer
  Proceedings of ARES 2008, The Third International Conference on Availability, Security and Reliability, pages 404-409, IEEE Computer Society, Barcelona, Spain, March 4-7, 2008
  IEEE DOI

 

• Entwicklung und Evaluierung eines Gruppierungsalgorithmus für selbstheilende verteilte Rechnersysteme
  Florian Siebenrock
  Masterarbeit

 

2007

 

• A Distributed Self-healing Data Store
  Wolfgang Trumler, Jörg Ehrig, Andreas Pietzowski, Benjamin Satzger, Theo Ungerer
  The 4th International Conference on Autonomic and Trusted Computing (ATC-07), Hong Kong, China, July 11-13, 2007

 

• Self-configuration and Self-healing in AUTOSAR
  Wolfgang Trumler, Markus Helbig, Andreas Pietzowski, Benjamin Satzger, Theo Ungerer
  14th Asia Pacific Automotive Engineering Conference (APAC-14), Hollywood, California, USA, 5-8 August 2007

 

• Organic Computing Middleware
  Wolfgang Trumler
  KI - Künstliche Intelligenz Heft 2/2007

 

• Adaptive Self-optimization in Distributed Dynamic Environments
  Wolfgang Trumler, Andreas Pietzowski, Benjamin Satzger, Theo Ungerer
  First IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems, Boston Massachusetts, USA, 9 - 11 July 2007

 

• Variations and evaluations of an adaptive accrual failure detector to enable self-healing properties in distributed systems
  Benjamin Satzger, Andreas Pietzowski, Wolfgang Trumler, Theo Ungerer
  ARCS'07: Architecture of Computing Systems, pages 171-184, Zurich, Switzerland, March 12-15, 2007
  Published in "Lecture Notes in Computer Science" (LNCS), ISSN: 0302-9743

 

• A new adaptive accrual failure detector for dependable distributed systems
  Benjamin Satzger, Andreas Pietzowski, Wolfgang Trumler, Theo Ungerer
  Proceedings of the 2007 ACM symposium on Applied computing SAC '07, pages 551 - 555, Seoul, Korea, March 11 - 15, 2007
  ACM DOI, ISBN:1-59593-480-4

 

2006

 

• Applications and Architectures in Organic Computing (DFG SPP 1183 "Organic Computing")
  Eds.: M. Güdemann, F. Nafz, A. Pietzowski, W. Reif, B. Satzger, H. Seebach, T. Ungerer
  Technischer Bericht 2006-21

 

• Using Positive and Negative Selection from Immunology for Detection of Anomalies in a Self-Protecting Middleware
  Andreas Pietzowski, Benjamin Satzger, Wolfgang Trumler, Theo Ungerer
  36th annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI),
  Informatik für Menschen, INFORMATIK 2006, October 2-6, 2006, Dresden, Germany
  LNI, Volume P-93

 

• Selbstkonfiguration und Selbstheilung in AUTOSAR
  Markus Helbig
  Diplomarbeit

 

• A Bio-Inspired Approach for Self-Protecting an Organic Middleware with Artificial Antibodies
  Andreas Pietzowski, Benjamin Satzger, Wolfgang Trumler, Theo Ungerer
  International Workshop on Self-Organising Systems, IWSOS 2006, September 18-20, 2006, Passau, Germany
  LNCS 4124

 

• Self-configuration via Cooperative Social Behavior
  Wolfgang Trumler, Robert Klaus, and Theo Ungerer
  Third International Conference, ATC 2006, Wuhan, China

 

• An Artificial Hormone System for Self-organization of Networked Nodes
  Wolfgang Trumler, Tobias Thiemann, Theo Ungerer
  Biologically inspired Cooperative Computing, IFIP 19th World Computer Congress 2006, August 21-24, 2006, Santiago de Chile, Chile

 

• Selbstheilung in einem verteilten dienstbasierten Netzwerk
  Jörg Ehrig
  Diplomarbeit

 

• Organic Ubiquitous Middleware
  Wolfgang Trumler
  Dissertation, Universität Augsburg
  Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Theo Ungerer
  Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Bauer

 

• An Artificial Immune System and its Integration into an Organic Middleware for Self-Protection
  Andreas Pietzowski, Wolfgang Trumler, and Theo Ungerer
  GECCO’06, July 8–12, 2006, Seattle, Washington, USA.
  ACM 1-59593-186-4/06/0007.

 

• Selbstkonfiguration in einem dienstbasierten Peer-to-Peer-Netzwerk
  Robert Klaus
  Diplomarbeit

 

2005

 

• AMUN - autonomic middleware for ubiquitous environments applied to the smart doorplate
  Wolfgang Trumler, Faruk Bagci, Jan Petzold, Theo Ungerer
  ELSEVIER Advanced Engineering Informatics, Volume 19 Issue 3, Pages 243-252, 2005

 

• Selbstorganisation der Knoten einer Peer-to-peer Middleware mittels Botenstoffen
  Tobias Thiemann
  Diplomarbeit

 

2004

 

• Towards an Organic Middleware for the Smart Doorplate Project
  Wolfgang Trumler, Jan Petzold, Faruk Bagci, and Theo Ungerer
  GI Workshop on Organic Computing - in connection with "34. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Informatik", Ulm, Germany, September 24, 2004

 

• AMUN - An Autonomic Middleware for the Smart Doorplate Project
  Wolfgang Trumler, Jan Petzold, Faruk Bagci, and Theo Ungerer
  UbiSys '04 - System Support for Ubiquitous Computing Workshop at the Sixth Annual Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp 2004), Nottingham, England, September 7, 2004

 

• AMUN - Autonomic Middleware for Ubiquitious eNvironments Applied to the Smart Doorplate Project
  Wolfgang Trumler, Jan Petzold, Faruk Bagci, Theo Ungerer
  International Conference on Autonomic Computing (ICAC-04), New York, NY, May 17-18, 2004

 

2003

 

• Smart Doorplate - Toward an Autonomic Computing System
  Wolfgang Trumler, Faruk Bagci, Jan Petzold, Theo Ungerer
  The Fifth Annual International Workshop on Active Middleware Services (AMS2003), Seattle, USA, June 25, 2003

 

• Smart Doorplate
  Wolfgang Trumler, Faruk Bagci, Jan Petzold, Theo Ungerer
  The First International Conference on Appliance Design (1AD), Bristol, UK, May 6-8, 2003,
  Reprinted in: Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, volume 7, number 3-4, pages 221-226, July 2003

 

• Einsatz mobiler Agenten in verteilten ubiquitären Systemen
  Faruk Bagci, Jan Petzold, Wolfgang Trumler, Theo Ungerer
  19. PARS-Workshop, Basel, Switzerland, March 20-21, 2003, (in German)