Internetware: An Emerging Software Paradigm for Internet Computing

The Internet is undergoing a tremendous change towards the globalized computing environment.Due to the open,dynamic and uncontrollable natures of the Internet,software running in the Internet computing environment has some new features,which bring challenges to current software technologies in terms of software model,software operating platform,software engineering approaches and software quality.Researchers in China have proposed the term "Internetware" to present the emerging software paradigm.Sponsored by the National Basic Research 973 Program,several research practices have been done on the Internetware in the past decade.This paper summarizes the progress and status of the Internetware researches.A technical solution framework for the Internetware paradigm is proposed from four aspects:the Internetware software model defines what the Internetware is to be;the Internetware middleware determines how to run the Internetware applications;the engineering methodology determines how to develop the Internetware applications;the Internetware quality assurance determines how well the Internetware applications can perform.The paper also discusses the ongoing research issues and future trends of Internetware.     

一个适用于网构软件的信任度量及演化模型

网构软件的构建依赖于对开放协同环境中各种异构的、自治的软件服务实体间的有效协同.Internet的开放性与动态性,使得对于诚实的、具有可靠服务质量协同实体的选择难度较大,难以确保网构软件的可信性.软件实体间的信任关系对于保障网构软件的可信性具有重要的指导意义.软件实体间的信任关系通常随协作的进行而不断变化,但现有的信任模型缺乏对实体间信任关系的自动形成与更新的支持,从而无法刻画信任关系的动态性.针对该问题,提出了一个适用于网构软件的信任度量及演化模型.该模型不仅对信任关系度量过程和信任信息传递及合并过程进行了合理抽象,而且还提供了一种合理的方法,用于促进协同实体间信任关系的自动形成与更新.该模型有助于解决开放环境下网构软件的可信性问题.     

Editorial: Internetware of the Age

While the infrastructure of computing shifting from isolated computers to Internet-linked resources, the software industry transfers its focus from computing products to dependable services. That''s one of the reasons why pervasive computing, grid computing, service computing and cloud computing are introduced on the open and dynamic Internet-linked platform. The communication abilities it introduced enable various resources exchanging and sharing freely, and participating in the community in the social network. There are three layers in such a platform: computing infrastructure, software services and information web. The underline layer, computing infrastructure, provides computing and communication facilities, and the surface layer, information web, is full of information recombination and consuming. The layer of software services serves as a factory to process constantly emerging and heterogeneous dynamic information using distributed, autonomous, and evolvable computing facilities. Therefore, services provided by such software systems should be adaptive, situational, trustworthy, autonomous and etc. To achieve flexible objectives, these services can be coordinated in various styles such as integration, cooperation, orchestration and etc. A portmanteau term \Internetware" is used     

基于Agent的网构软件构件模型及其实现

网构软件代表了Internet环境下的一种新型的软件形态,但仍然面临着外部环境显式化、软件实体主体化、运行机制自适应等问题.从构件的角度出发,提出了EBDI(electronic business document exchange)结构以表示能够根据环境变化实施自主行为的构件,利用动态绑定关系解释了构件的自适应演化特征.根据形式化的Role模型,描述了构件的运行状态、自主运行及自适应演化运行机制.开发了DAgent-Internetware原型作为网构软件的支撑平台,支持以DAgent为构件的网构软件从设计到实现、部署、运行、演化等一系列流程.     

Software Evolution for Moving into and Moving within Internetware Paradigm

Internetware has been an emerging software paradigm to best support computing in the Internet era. Internetware emphasises accommodating the open, dynamic and uncontrollable natures of Internet, which directly and indirectly relates software evolvability. This paper observes that evolving non-Internetware software into the Internetware paradigm and evolving software within Internetware will be two main research and practical issues, and hence proposes an integrated approach to address these two issues. The proposed framework is based a three-dimension structure, with System Functions, System Quality and System models as dimensions. With this framework, evolving software into internetware paradigm can be viewed mainly as changing the qualities of existing software and evolving software within Internetware paradigm can be viewed mainly as changing software functions. The involved prototype tool, working examples and experiments conducted, are used to illustrate the proposed approach.     

Towards Software Architecture and Mechanisms for Improving Runtime Variability of Internetware System

As an emerging software paradigm, Internetware is proposed to handle openness, dynamism of software systems in the context of Internet, which implies that such software systems typically have runtime variability that can be improved dynamically to handle various or even unexpected changes of requirements and open environment. Though many progresses of Internetware software technologies have been made to support the adaptation, evolution, context-awareness, etc. of Internetware, how to construct Internetware systems with the ability to improve their runtime variability is still a great challenge in the literature of software engineering. In this paper, we propose software architecture and mechanisms for Internetware systems to support the improvement of their runtime variability by combining software variability and autonomic computing techniques. The Internetware system is organized as three levels that are consist of variable autonomic elements and Internetware entities, and architecture of these software entities is defined and discussed respectively. Moreover, we put forward a series of runtime mechanisms based on these levels, including module selection, intermediator and horizontal management, to realize operations upon the variation points and variants in software architectures and thus achieve the improvement of runtime variability. We develop a sample of Personal Data Resource Network to depict the requirements and scenario of improving runtime variability, and further study the case based on our proposed approach to show its effectiveness and applicability.     

Requirements model driven adaption and evolution of Internetware

Today’s software systems need to support complex business operations and processes.The development of the web-based software systems has been pushing up the limits of traditional software engineering methodologies and technologies as they are required to be used and updated almost real-time,so that users can interact and share the same applications over the internet as needed.These applications have to adapt quickly to the diversified and dynamic changing requirements in the physical,technological,economical and social environments.As a consequence,we are expecting a major paradigm shift in software engineering to reflect such changes in computing environment in order to better address the fundamental needs of organisations in this new era.Existing software technologies,such as model driven development,business process engineering,online(re-)configuration,composition and adaptation of managerial functionalities are being repurposed to reduce the time taken for software development by reusing software codes.The ability to dynamically combine contents from numerous web sites and local resources,and the ability to instantly publish services worldwide have opened up entirely new possibilities for software development.In retrospect to the ten years applied research on Internetware,we have witnessed such a paradigm shift,which brings about many changes to the developmental experience of conventional web applications.Several related technologies,such as cloud computing,service computing,cyber-physical systems and social computing,have converged to address this emerging issue with emphasis on different aspects.In this paper,we first outline the requirements that the Internetware software paradigm should meet to excel at web application adaptation;we then propose a requirement model driven method for adaptive and evolutionary applications;and we report our experiences and case studies of applying it to an enterprise information system.Our goal is to provide high-level guidelines to researchers and practitioners to meet the challenges of building adaptive industrial-strength applications with the spectrum of processes,techniques and facilities provided within the Internetware paradigm.     

基于服务更新的网构软件可靠性模型研究(英文)

网构软件是在开放、动态和多变的Internet环境下软件系统基本形态的一种抽象。这种新的软件系统,它的构建依赖于开放环境中各异构、自治的软件服务实体之间的有效协同。其可靠性不单取决于拥有自主性的软件服务实体本身,还取决于外部环境的动态变化,主要表现为开放环境下服务实体元素的更新,所以传统的软件可靠性的度量模型已不能适应这种新的软件形态。能否在网构软件形态下建立一个好的可靠性度量模型成为其中一个较为核心的问题。文章以服务更新过程中失效数(failurecounts)为基础,将服务更新强度引入Musa-Okumoto(M-O)模型中,作为M-O模型在新的软件形态下的一个推广。最后讨论了网构软件退化的情形和退化条件,为开放环境下网构软件可靠性研究提供一种思路。     

Technical framework for Internetware: An architecture centric approach

Being a new software paradigm evolved by the Internet, Internetware brings many challenges to the traditional software methods and techniques. Sponsored by the national basic research program （973）, researchers in China have developed an architecture centric technical framework for the definition, incarnation and engineering of Internetware. First of all, a software model for Internetware is defined for what to be, including that Internetware entities should be packaged as components, behaving as agents, interoperating as services, collaborating in a structured and on demand manner, etc. Secondly, a middleware for Internetware is designed and implemented for how to be, including that Internetware entities are incarnated by runtime containers, structured collaborations are enabled by runtime software architecture, Internetware can be managed in a reflective and autonomic manner, etc. Thirdly, an engineering methodology for Internetware is proposed for how to do, including the way to develop Internetware entities and their collaborations by transforming and refining a set of software architectures which cover all the phases of software lifecycle, the way to identify and organize the disordered software assets by domain modeling, etc.     

自主构件自适应策略的在线定制及动态评估

开放分布式环境下自适应软件的研究已引起学术界、工业界的广泛关注.但分布在网络上的软件实体是由不同的组织独立开发并部署的,它们代表各自的组织(或所有者)自主地采取行动,在构造分布式环境下的自适应系统时,不能再将构成单元视为被动的受管对象,而应将其建模为具有主动行为能力的计算实体,并在这一层面设计和封装系统的自适应逻辑.然而,在现阶段对于自主计算实体的研究中,大多缺乏对于自适应策略的动态加载和动态演化的支持.提出了一种支持策略动态加载的自主构件模型,使得自主构件能够在运行时习得新的自适应策略和行为,实现了一种基于质量运行时动态评估的自主构件的自适应机制,使得自主构件能够自行评估自适应策略的优劣并选择最佳的策略加以适应,在保证自身目标得以实现的同时,提高了服务质量.另外,还详细描述了自主构件的实现方案及其运行支撑,通过实验展示了自主构件基于质量动态评估的自适应过程以及自适应策略的动态加载过程.     

A software architecture centric engineering approach for Internetware

As a new software paradigm evolved by the Internet, Internetware brings many challenges for the traditional software development methods and techniques. Though architecture-based component composition (ABC) approach is originated in the traditional software paradigm, it supports the engineering of Internetware effectively due to its philosophy, rationales and mechanisms. ABC has three major contributions to the en- gineering of Internetware in detail. First, the feature oriented domain modeling method can structure the “disordered”“software entities” to “ordered Internetware” bottom-up in the problem space. Second, the architecture centric design and analysis method can support the development of self-adaptive Internetware. Third, the component operating platform is a reflective and self-adaptive middleware that not only provides Internetware with a pow- erful and flexible runtime infrastructure but also enables the self-adaptation of the structure and individual entities of Internetware.     

网构软件中实体发现和排序的TEA方法(英文)

自治软件实体分布在开放、动态和多变的互联网中,它们的协作构成网构软件的基础。动态连接模式是网构软件重要的协作方式。在该模式下,如何选择具有所需质量的软件实体,是一个非常困难的任务。介绍了运行时测试和自动化测试技术,提出网构软件的自动化运行时测试方法。总结网构软件中用于软件实体的发现和排序的解决方法,提出了测试和评估方法TEA。网构软件不知道候选软件实体的质量,通过进行自动化的运行时测试,TEA可以选择具有更高质量的实体。如同网构软件一样,自治软件实体也可以在运行时改变自身结构。通过使用确认断言来评估每次实体调用的结果,TEA可以尽早发现实体变化引起的质量问题。TEA中的软件实体注册机收集每个不同的网构软件反馈的测试和评估结果信息,可以产生按估计质量排序的实体列表。在模拟实验中,TEA产生的有序列表获得最好的评估分数。     

用抽象质量类型构建高质量网构软件(英文)

在开发基于因特网的软件系统(文中称为网构软件)时,在开发过程的各个阶段都需要考虑软件系统的多种质量属性,这样网构软件的质量才能在软件系统的规约和设计阶段进行推导和预测,从而在部署和运行阶段进一步进行评估和验证。提出了一种新的抽象概念,即抽象质量类型,将软件实体的数据状态、相关的操作、质量属性以及保证质量得以实现的环境封装在一个统一的语法单元中,从而为建模软件实体以及推导其功能和非功能属性提供了一种严格的手段。探讨了基于软件体系结构及软件交互过程的抽象质量类型的组合,这为构建高质量网构软件提供了一定的形式化基础。最后,还描出了一个系统原型来展示如何利用抽象质量类型构造网构软件,并验证和提高网构软件系统的相关质量属性。     

一种情境驱动的网构软件体系架构与支撑环境

本文从网构软件Internet环境下涉及的各类事物和事件情境及情境的整个生命周期出发,以情境驱动为核心,对网构软件的体系结构与支撑环境展开研究,以支持服务实体的自适应、自演化行为。本文研究了Internet环境下服务实体交互与协同关系中的各种情境构成,给出了一个适合网构软件的情境本体定义。在此基础上,给出了一种基于情境感知的网构软件体系架构,并描述了在这一架构下网构软件按需聚合和动态演化的模型与机制。围绕该应用场景,结合服务实体实际运行时的特点及要素,给出了该体系架构下网构软件的支撑环境软件设计。最后,本文给出了一种基于OSGi服务平台的支撑环境参考实现。     

Flourishing creativity in software development via Internetware paradigm

While culture being the software controlling human mind, computer software development becomes one of the most creative activities that human undertake since the civilisation began. The only limitation in software creation is human imagination, and that limit is often self-imposed. The “Internetware”, referring to a software paradigm, aims to satisfy the need of human kind using Internet as an integrated development and execution platform. Such software systems are composed of entities distributed through the Internetwork, allowing connections that would be impossible or difficult to make otherwise. One of the tasks for the Internetware is to accommodate creativity, to understand the general settings of creative design process and to develop programs that can enhance creativity without necessarily being creative themselves. Therefore, it can be summarized that a development environment needs to be built to best support software creation process of six steps including searching, ideating, specifying, coding, testing and evolving. An E-Health application eco-system is used to illustrate the proposed development process model.     

Services computing: grid applications for today

The coming generation of Internet applications promises to incorporate a distinctly different view of software, one based on services. Services computing is the evolution of Internet computing toward a services-oriented architecture. By service oriented, we mean that business will purchase functionality in chunks. Rather than buying software for permanent in-house installation, companies will buy services as needed. A services model removes the burden of updates and patches from the IT department, returning such work to its rightful owners: the vensors that sell the software. To support such a scenario, an architecture must embrace a new technology suite that includes Web services and a service-oriented architecture for grid and utility computing, and autonomic computing.     

THEORY AND PRACTICE OF FIELD-BASED MOTION COORDINATION IN MULTIAGENT SYSTEMS

Enabling and managing coordination activities between autonomous, possibly mobile, computing entities in dynamic computing scenarios challenges traditional approaches to distributed application development and software engineering. This paper specifically focuses on the problem of motion coordination, and proposes field-based coordination as a general framework to model and engineer such coordinated behaviors. The key idea in field-based coordination is to have agents' movements driven by computational force fields, generated by the agents themselves and/or by some infrastructure, and propagated across the environment. This paper shows that field-based approaches enable the definition of adaptive and effective motion coordination schemes, which can be modeled and tested by making use of a dynamical systems formalism, and which can be easily implemented either above existing middleware infrastructures or by making use of novel middleware specifically conceived for field-based coordination.     

一种保护用户隐私的Web服务组合框架

随着网络及数据挖掘技术的迅猛发展,网络软件的用户越来越关注个人数据的隐私安全。通过Web服务及其组合建立的网络软件在提供功能的同时,还应重视用户数据的隐私安全等非功能需求。本文提出一种保护用户数据隐私的Web服务组合框架,给出该框架的结构及具体实现过程,最后通过一个案例分析验证了该框架的可行性和有效性。     

On environment-driven software model for Internetware

Internetware is envisioned as a general software paradigm for the application style of resources integration and sharing in the open, dynamic and uncertain platforms such as the Internet. Continuing the agent-based Internetware model presented in a previous paper, in this paper, after an analysis of the behavioral patterns and the technical challenges of environment-driven applications, a software-structuring model is proposed for environment-driven Internetware applications. A series of explorations on the enabling techniques for the model, especially the modeling, management and utilization of context information are presented. Several proto-typical systems have also been built to prove the concepts and evaluate the techniques. These research efforts make a further step toward the Internetware paradigm by providing an initial framework for the construction of context-aware and self-adaptive software application systems in the open network environment.     

基于Web的计算资源发布：概念、模型与实践

Web的开放性、一致性以及Internet上大量的空闲计算资源使得在Web上发布计算资源（基于Web的分布式计算）成为可能,我们介绍了Web资源发布的概念以及形式化模型,该模型有助于解决可用性和透明等问题,此外我们提出了可扩展的树状代理结构,并实现了计算资源代理发布的原型系统WCRPS。