Definition and Characteristics

Definition and Characteristics

• Definition and Characteristics

• Distributed Systems Models
• Autonomic Systems
• Digital Ecosystems

• Cyberspace and Digital Ecosystem(s)

• Use case – Emerging Applications
• Multi-scale Ego-centric Ubiquitous Digital Ecosystem
• Security and Privacy Issues

IT industry, Economy, Business

• IT industry, Economy, Business

• SOA, Software Engineering

• Networks and Information Systems

• For us: Distributed Collaborative Systems

Client-Server (typically, the Web)

• Client-Server (typically, the Web)

• Peer-to-Peer (typically Bittorent and file sharing systems)

• Grid (typically, the CERN LCG)

• Mobile agents

• Variants → Course on large scale computing

Traditional models fail to model and implement highly dynamic loosely supervised distributed systems

• Traditional models fail to model and implement highly dynamic loosely supervised distributed systems

• Alternative models

• autonomic computing → focus on autonomy and coordination
• cloud computing → re-centralize everything
• pervasive/ubiquitous computing → focus on user context
• Internet of Things → focus on interoperability
• digital ecosystems → an holistic vision

Autonomic Computing [Horn, 2001; Parashar and Hariri, 2005]

• Autonomic Computing [Horn, 2001; Parashar and Hariri, 2005]

• analogy with the nervous system – notion of equilibrium
• observation: emerging systems and applications are dynamic
• survivability of the system  the system can adapt to environment changes (incl. attacks, faults, disruptions…)
• basic operation loop of an autonomic system: Monitor-Decide-Adapt
• sense / monitor the environment (context discovery), and analyze the context
• plan a knowledge-based adaptation of the system (decision making)
• execute the change
• context- and self-awareness

Autonomic Computing [Horn, 2001; Parashar and Hariri, 2005] (cont’d): characteristics/properties of a generic autonomic system

• Autonomic Computing [Horn, 2001; Parashar and Hariri, 2005] (cont’d): characteristics/properties of a generic autonomic system

• Self Configuring
• Self Optimizing
• Self-Healing
• Self Protecting
• Context Aware
• Open
• Anticipatory
• Proactive

• Digital Ecosystems (Distributed Collaborative Systems) [Boley et al., 2007; Damiani and his group @ Milan]

• “A digital ecosystem can be defined as an open, loosely coupled, domain clustered, demand-driven, self-organizing agent environment, where each agent of each species is proactive and responsive regarding its own benefit/profit but is also responsible to its system.” (Boley and Chang, 2007)

Digital Ecosystems: Main Characteristics

• Digital Ecosystems: Main Characteristics

• Loose coupling - Personal Engagement
• Equilibrium – Interdependence - Balance
• Local Interactions  Global Behavior
• Self-organization – Autonomy - No Central or Distributed Control
• Adaptation to the Environment – Dynamicity – Evolutionary System
• Collective (Swarm) Intelligence – Structured Relationship - Responsibility
• Openness - Multiplicity of Ecosystems (cf. human social life)

Digital Ecosystems: Main Characteristics (cont’d)

• Digital Ecosystems: Main Characteristics (cont’d)

• Cooperation – Collective/Swarm Intelligence
• cf. bees, ants, dolphins…
• swarm is a set of agents that can interact and that share a common interest
• collective problem solving
• Communication  System Semantics
• DE => need of shared explicit formal semantics (formal languages)
• Link with some characteristics of the semantic Web
• A new way of designing/thinking distributed systems and applications
• Related to autonomic computing

Ego-centric

• Ego-centric

• focus on the user’s interactions with her/his environment(s)
• personalization – context-awareness

• Ubiquitous

• mobility
• simultaneous interactions with multiple ecosystems

• Multi-scale

• comprise entities (typically, services) of totally different nature, origin and operational characteristics
• from an embedded “thing” to a public cloud
• integration of data, information, knowledge from all sources
• huge mass of information

• Digital Ecosystem

• see above

Seamless “weaved into the fabric of everyday life”

• Seamless “weaved into the fabric of everyday life”

• “Graceful integration”

• Transparency of the “cyber infrastructure” (“vanish in the background”)

• User-centric

• Conclusion: hard to imagine in 1991 – realistic as an objective for the next decade

You are the hub and the source of information

• You are the hub and the source of information

•  (supposed to be) sensitive personal information

• Data exchanges, dissemination of information between multiple ecosystems with various security and privacy characteristics

•  un-alignment of security/privacy policies
•  sensitive information leakage

• You do not control, worse do not actually know, the environment

•  Uncertainty
•  Dynamicity
•  Unpredictability
•  Absence of trust, Anonymity

• Big Brother can watch you, now!

•  Your everyday life is seamlessly weaved into the cyberspace fabric: you are traced
•  The cyberspace does not forget: traces cannot be deleted
•  The storage and processing capacities are almost unlimited: your traces are/can be mined

• See course on these issues

New technologies enable / need / argue for new models, new designs

• New technologies enable / need / argue for new models, new designs

• Whatever the model, some basic features

• Autonomy
• Collaboration
• User-Centricity
• Integration
• Context-Awareness
• Mobility

• Digital ecosystems provide a holistic vision of emerging digital environments

• Some still largely open issues, esp. regarding interoperability

• The cyberspace as a digital ecosystem is the Babel Tower

• A fantastic, however in some way dreadful set of opportunities for new applications