Managing Dynamic Context for Supporting Self-Adaptive and Supporting Self-Adaptive and Self-Managing SystemsNorha VillegasFirst year PhD StudentRigi Group - Computer Science DepartmentUniversity of Victoria, Canaday ,

nvillega@cs.uvic.ca

http://webhome.csc.uvic.ca/~nvillega/

Skype: norha.villegas

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OutlineO i f h • Overview of my research group

• My research motivation and current projectsThe smart Internet• The smart Internet

• Context Management in the smart Internet• A control-based reference model for engineering • A control-based reference model for engineering

self-adaptive systems• Motivation for visiting ADAM teamMotivation for visiting ADAM team

M R h G Ri iRigi Research Group

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My Research Group: Rigi• Leader: Prof. Dr. Hausi A. Müller

(http://webhome.cs.uvic.ca/~hausi/ )• We investigate methods, models, architectures, techniques, and

feedback loops for supporting autonomic, self-managing, self-adaptive, diagnosis, and SOA governance systems▫ Ultra Large Scale environments▫ Socio Technical-Ecosystemsy

• Sponsors and Partners▫ Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)▫ Consortium for Software Engineering, Canada (CSER)▫ IBM Corporation▫ CA Inc.▫ Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI)▫ University of Victoria

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Rigi’s Research Communities • ICSEICSE

▫ SEAMS: Workshop on software engineering for adaptive and self-managing systems

▫ PESOS: International workshop on principles of engineering service oriented systemsDEAS D i d l i f i li i f▫ DEAS: Design and evolution of autonomic application software

▫ ACSE: Workshop on adoption-centric software engineering

• ICSMMESOA I t ti l k h h d f i t d ▫ MESOA: International workshop on a research agenda for maintenance and evolution of service-oriented systems

▫ VISSOFT: International Workshop on Visualizing Software for Understanding and Analysis

• CASCON: International Conference hosted by the IBM Centers for Advanced Studies, Canada▫ SITCON: the CAS/NSERC strategic workshop on smart internet technologies

• Dagstuhl Seminar on Software Engineering for Self-Adaptive Systems

My Research MotivationRigi Research Group

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My Research Motivation• The application of feedback loops for supporting:The application of feedback loops for supporting:▫ the engineering of self-* software systems in

generalh d i d i d l i f ▫ the dynamic adaptation and evolution of

context-aware service oriented software systems in particulary p

Source IBM: An architectural blueprint for Autonomic Computing

My Current Projects and ActivitiesRigi Research Group

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My Current Projects and Activities

• A joint IBM-NSERC project• A joint IBM-NSERC project▫ IBM PhD CAS student fellowship▫ Project: Managing Dynamic Context to Optimize Smart

Interactions and Smart ServicesInteractions and Smart Serviceshttps://www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cassis/viewReport?REPORT=747

• Analysis and control of computing systemsy p g y▫ Design of an experimental course for exploring the application of

control theory foundations to software engineering https://connex.csc.uvic.ca/portal/site/eac7abb3-27a0-4a53-be0f-10525cabe46e

C d A l i f db k l f ▫ Case study: Applying context-aware feedback loops for supporting monitoring in service oriented systems

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Norha Villegas and Hausi MüllerBook chapter, Springer - LNCS (to appear)

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Contributions

• Operational definition and classification of context informationcontext information

• A feature-based characterization of context modeling and management approachesg g pp▫ Application of FODA (SEI) across the context life

cycleR i f d li d • Requirements for context modeling and management in the smart Internet

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A Motivating ScenarioA woman arriving a city

Once in her room Before leaving the hotela city

• While in the taxi she receives a mobile check-in request• Dynamic

d l t f

• An important dinner at that night

• Receives a personalized dress

t l f h

the hotel

• She uses her mobile device for check-out and pay for hotel services

deployment of a context- aware application for hotel services

• She has booked a hotel in advance

catalog from her favorite designer’s boutique• Fashion

preferences, current location, agendaagenda

• Composes services for ordering shoes and accessories

Services are provided according to nearby facilities, the Services are provided according to nearby facilities, the woman’s preferences and her agenda for this visitwoman’s preferences and her agenda for this visit

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Major Shortcomings of Current Internet Interactions

I t ti f th ’ Context-aware server Context-aware

individualization

(e.g. custom dress catalog)

Integration from the user’s perspective

(e.g. service composition, user’s moc, a fancy dinner)

Cinitiated connections

(e.g. automatic deployment for service

provisioning)

Service level collaborationUser control over web

resources(e.g. the woman and her friends collaborating to

buy accessories)

(e.g. the woman selects services and decides about

remote or local interactions)

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The Smart Internet

Th l ti f I t t• The evolution of Internet• A new model centered on the user instead on the

serverserver• A new client-server interaction pattern• Vision• Vision▫ An instinctive user model▫ Sessions for users and their matters of concerns

(mocs)▫ Collective and collaborative web interactions

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Smart Interactions and Smart Services

Smart interactions• Smart interactions▫ The new model of interaction between the user

and the Web▫ Online services and resources to address user or

group’s evolving concerns and situations Are discovered aggregated and delivered Are discovered, aggregated and delivered

dynamically, automatically and interactively• Smart Services

d h f f▫ Provide the infrastructure for supporting smart interactions Their requirements functions and relationshipsTheir requirements, functions and relationships

Context-Awareness Challenges in the Smart Rigi Research Group

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Context-Awareness Challenges in the Smart Internet

Dynamic identification of context control objectives (context management requirements)

Dynamic context models for representing context and control objectives

Dynamic context management infrastructures able to gather, handle and exploit context according to the model

Dynamic monitoring of context control objectives

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Operational Definition of Context

Context is any information useful to characterize the state of individual entities and the relationships among them. An entity is any subject which can affect the behavior of the entity is any subject which can affect the behavior of the system and/or its interaction with the user. This context information must be modeled in such a way that it can be pre-processed after its acquisition from the environment, p p f q f ,classified according to the corresponding domain, handled to be provisioned based on the system’s requirements, and maintained to support its dynamic evolution.

Villegas and Müller, 2010.

Foundations: Dey’s definition (classical definition), Zimmerman’s definition (dynamic behaviour) and Hynes’ context life cycle.

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Classification of Context Information

Villegas and Müller, 2010.

Classification of Context InformationRigi Research Group

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Classification of Context Information

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A Feature-Based Characterization of Context Modeling and Management

• 25 papers with context modeling contributions• 30 for context management• 30 for context management• Identification of relevant characteristics▫ Framework for the identification of context modeling

and management requirements▫ A useful tool for comparing existing and defining new

approachesapproaches▫ A comprehensive characterization to guide researchers

in the investigation of this topic

Kang, K.C., Cohen, S.G., Hess, J.A., Novak, W.E., Peterson, A.S.: Feature-oriented domain analysis (FODA): Feasibility study. CMU/SEI-90-TR-21 Technical Report (1990)

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Context Modeling (1)• For representing:• For representing:▫ Relevant aspects of entities that affect the

interactions between users and systems▫ Situations that trigger dynamic changes▫ Context control objectives: aspects to be

it dmonitored

First level features of context modeling

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Context Modeling (2)

Features of context entities and situation representation

Features of timeliness and quality modeling

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Context Management

First level features of context management

Features of context acquisition

Context Modeling Requirements in the smart Rigi Research Group

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Context Modeling Requirements in the smart Internet

Context entities and situation representation: that affect the interaction among users and web resources in a moc

• the hotel reservation• the new woman’s location• a dinner at that night• the woman’s profile in the among users and web resources in a moc

Context control objectives representation:

boutique’s system

identifying a change in the Context control objectives representation: to support dynamic adaptation of web resources involved in a moc

y g gwoman’s location: a new city

Dynamic adaptation: according to changes in the moc or in the state of its entities. Ensuring representation pertinence with

the context representation for the woman arriving the hotel differs from the context for the

l i th h t lsu g ep ese a o pe e ce

current situationswoman leaving the hotel

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Context Management Requirements in the smart Internet

Identification of context control objectives from the model and define management strategies accordingly

Support the adaptation of context model: schanges in situations, changes in context control objectives

Gathering of relevant context regardless the availability of context sourcesGathering of relevant context regardless the availability of context sources

Context handling and situation reasoning according to the model

Context provisioning to multiple execution endpoints: open and technologically agnostic mechanisms

Self-adaptation and self-management

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Application of Feedback loops• Application of control theory to the engineering of context-aware

self-adaptive systems• Feedback loops provide the generic mechanism for self-adaptation

(collect, analyze, decide and act)

SISO feedback control block diagram with explicit functional elements and corresponding interactions to control dynamic adaptation in a software system

Villegas, N.M., Müller, H.A., Tamura, G., Duchien, L., Casallas, R.: A Control Engineered Reference Model for Context-Based Self-Adaptation. Submitted to SASO 2010.

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Context Control Obj i

Definition and execution of the adaptation plan

Objectives(from system

control objectives)

G th i d

Context management infrastructure

Gathering and symptoms inference Deciding about

context manager adaptation

Sensing and Preprocessing

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System’s context to support adaptation

monitoring

Provides context control

objectives

monitoring

objectives

Enables objectives manager to decide about changes in control objectives

Supports the system adaptation

(context provisioning)

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Many Open Challenges• Identification of context control objectives, for instance from (at design and Identification of context control objectives, for instance from (at design and

run-time):▫ Contracts for self-adaptation▫ SLAs▫ User’s matters of concerns

• Operational representation of context requirements and context entities representation▫ E.g.: timeliness for representing context changes in multiple Web sessions

• Tools for assisting users in the:g▫ Specification of context requirements▫ Dynamic evolution of context models

• Managing uncertainty due to dynamic, transient and volatile context• Supporting the dynamic adaptation of context models and management pp g y p g

infrastructures• Representation of context control objectives as control objectives in Control

Theory• Categorizing control-centric architectural patterns for context-aware

systems

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Motivation for Visiting ADAM Team

CAPPUCINO

(a middleware built as an autonomic feedback loop for supporting dynamic adaptation)supporting dynamic adaptation)

FRASCATI + FRASCAME

(E bli lf d i i Context Management(Enabling self-adaptation in service oriented applications)

Context Management

SCA

(SOA +CBSE)

Ubiquitous Feedback

Loops

Ubiquitous bindings

SPACES (dissemination mechanisms)

COSMOS

(Handling)Sensing and gathering?

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Merci!Questions?Questions?

University of Victoria, aerial view