Academia.eduAcademia.edu

Outline

Title
Abstract
Introduction
Discussion and Further Work
References
All Topics
Philosophy
Metaphysics

Semantic-Based Policy Engineering for Autonomic Systems

Profile image of Simon CourtenageSimon Courtenage

2005, Lecture Notes in Computer Science

https://doi.org/10.1007/11520184_12
visibility

…

description

13 pages

link

1 file

Abstract

This paper presents some important directions in the use of ontologybased semantics in achieving the vision of Autonomic Communications. We examine the requirements of Autonomic Communication with a focus on the demanding needs of ubiquitous computing environments, with an emphasis on the requirements shared with Autonomic Computing. We observe that ontologies provide a strong mechanism for addressing the heterogeneity in user task requirements, managed resources, services and context. We then present two complimentary approaches that exploit ontology-based knowledge in support of autonomic communications: service-oriented models for policy engineering and dynamic semantic queries using content-based networks. The paper concludes with a discussion of the major research challenges such approaches raise.

Related papers

Ontology-based semantics for composable autonomic elements
John Keeney

2005

The complexity of modern communication networks requires an autonomic approach, where elements exhibit a degree of self-management which when combined provide a level of self-management for the network as a whole. The heterogeneity of elements however prompts a knowledge driven approach to their definition, composition and management in order to address problems of semantic interoperability. This paper proposes a semantic service based approach to the definition of elements in an autonomic network in order to enable ontological reasoning in support of composable self-management functions.

View PDFchevron_right
On the Role of Ontological Semantics in Routing Contextual Knowledge in Highly Distributed Autonomic Systems
Dave Lewis

Much recent research has focused on applying Autonomic Computing principles to achieve constrained self-management in adaptive systems, through self-monitoring and analysis, strategy planning, and self adjustment. However, in a highly distributed system, just monitoring current operation and context is a complex and largely unsolved problem domain. This difficulty is particularly evident in the areas of network management, pervasive computing, and autonomic communications. This paper presents a model for the filtered dissemination of semantically enriched knowledge over a loosely coupled network of distributed heterogeneous autonomic agents. It also presents an implementation of such a Knowledge Delivery Network, which enables the efficient routing of distributed heterogeneous knowledge to, and only to, nodes that have expressed an interest in that knowledge for use as the operational or context information monitored in order to analyse to the system's behaviour as part of an autonomic control loop.

View PDFchevron_right
Rule-based and Ontology-based Policies: Toward a Hybrid Approach to Control Agents in Pervasive Environments
Jeffrey Bradshaw

2005

Policies are being increasingly used for controlling the behavior of complex multi-agent systems. The use of policies allows administrators to regulate agent behavior without changing source code or requiring the consent or cooperation of the agents being governed. However, policy-based control can sometimes encounter difficulties when applied to agents that act in pervasive environments characterized by frequent and unpredictable changes. In such cases, we cannot always specify policies a priori to handle any operative run time situation, but instead require continuous adjustments to allow agents to behave in a contextually appropriate manner. To address these issues, some policy approaches for governing agents in pervasive environments specify policies in a way that is both context-based and semantically-rich. Two approaches have been used in recent research: an ontology-based approach that relies heavily on the expressive features of Description Logic (DL) languages, and a rule-based approach that encodes policies as Logic Programming (LP) rules. The aim of this paper is to analyze the emerging directions for the specification of semantically-rich context-based policies, highlighting their advantages and drawbacks. Based on our analysis we describe a hybrid approach that exploits the expressive capabilities of both DL and LP approaches.

View PDFchevron_right
Ontology-based engineering for self-managing communications
John Keeney

2006

Ontology-based semantics support encoding and mapping between separately authored and thus heterogeneous knowledge, and is expressed in widely accepted standards (e.g. W3C's OWL). It has been suggested that ontology-based semantics will bring benefits to the management of a diversity of systems, ranging from conventional communication services to future autonomic communication services. This paper examines the state of the art in the application of ontological modeling to a range of concerns of interest in the engineering of communication services. In particular the role of ontology modeling for the modeling of services, policies, context, management information and semantic mappings will be examined.

View PDFchevron_right
Ontology based policy mobility for pervasive computing
Dave Lewis

2005

The array of devices, networks and resources available in pervasive computing environments, or smart spaces, will require effective self-management systems controlled via user-level policies. However, the local nature of smart spaces means that they present a potentially huge increase in the number of and nature of management domains, e.g. representing individual homes, shops, businesses, schools, hospitals etc. However, differences in local domain models and local resource models means that policies relevant to one smart space will often use different semantics for subject and target objects compared to other pervasive computing domains. To allow users to capture personal preferences in terms of policies that can be consistently applied as they roam between smart spaces, the semantic interoperability problem resulting from different models for policy subjects and targets must be overcome. In this paper we present a framework where the use of ontology-based semantics for policy elements allows dynamic ontology mapping capabilities to support policy mobility. We demonstrate its operation with a case study showing policy mobility in a policy-driven smart space management system. Keywords Ontologies, policy-based management, pervasive computing. 1. to overlap, for instance a fast-food restaurant chain may manage all the WLAN in its premises as a single distributed management domain, which it could thus view as a distributed managed zone. Where the restaurant are located in a concession, the managed zones of the restaurant chain and that of the concession giving body, e.g. the airport operator, will overlap, requiring mechanisms for resolving any resulting conflicts. The operation of managed zones promises to be highly complex due to the range of types, the variable interconnectedness and adaptive, context-aware behaviour of the managed devices and services involved. Policy-based management offers the opportunity for easing the cognative load on human administrators by allowing them to specify policies related to organizational goals. However, pervasive computing systems, need to adapt to different contexts in different smart spaces, or changing context due to user or device mobility and resulting changes in network connectivity as well as varying device capabilities in terms of user inputs, displays, processing power, battery life, access link. Therefore, managed zones will have to exhibit characteristics of autonomic systems [kephart]. This is where smart spaces adapt autonomously to changes in context and specific user task requests but with policies providing instructions on the goals to be achieved by and constraints imposed upon this adaptive behaviour. The use of policy-based management for managed zones differs from its proposed use in autonomic management of computing or communication resources in that a broader range of policy-authors will be involved. Rather than policies being the remit of clearly identifiable administrators of server farms, storage arrays or communication networks, smart space resources must enforce management policies from different organisational groups and roles in particular, and most importantly by the individual user of the smart spaces. User policies can be used to specify user preferences for adaptive service behaviour, e.g. specifying the use of certain mail servers where possible or a preference for low cost over reliability for certain service types.

View PDFchevron_right
The autonomic management of ubiquitous systems meets the semantic web
Joseph Sventek

Semantic Web Technology For Ubiquitous & Mobile Applications (SWUMA’06), 2006

Abstract. With the emergence of mobile and ubiquitous computing environments, there is an increasing need for autonomic management support. A Self-Managed Cell (SMC) has been proposed as an architecture for such systems. SMCs will undoubtedly benefit from the ability to seamlessly interoperate with other SMCs, requiring minimal human intervention. The Semantic Web has been purported to enable such interoperability. In this paper we will highlight how Semantic Web technologies may be used to support the collaboration of ...

View PDFchevron_right

References (34)

  1. Banadara, K., Lupu, E, Moffett, J., Russo, A., "A Goal-Based approach to Policy Refinement", in proc of 5th IEEE International Workshop on Policies and Distributed Systems and Networks, IEEE, 2004, pp 229-239
  2. Barrett, R., "People and Policies: Transforming the Human-Computer Partnership", in proc of 5th IEEE International Workshop on Policies and Distributed Systems and Networks, IEEE, 2004, pp 111-116
  3. Beigi, M., Calo, S., Verma, D., "Policy Transformation Techniques in Policy-based Systems Management", in proc of 5th IEEE International Workshop on Policies and Distributed Systems and Networks, IEEE, 2004, pp 13-22 [berners-lee] Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, K., Lassila, O. (2001), 'The Semantic Web', Scientific American, pp 35-43, Issue 284 (3), 17th May 2001
  4. Cai, M., Frank, M., "RDFPeers: A Scaleable Distributed RDF Repository based on a Stuructred Peer-to-Peer Network, in Proc. of World Wide Web Conference 2004, 17-22 May 2004, New York, NY, USA
  5. Carzaniga et al, "Design and Evaluation of a Wide-Area Event Notification Service", In ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, Vol. 19(3), 2001, pp. 332-383.
  6. Chakraborty, D., Perich, F., Joshi, A., Finin, T., Yesha, Y., "A Reactive Service Composition Architecture for Pervasive Computing Environments", In 7th Personal Wireless Communications Conference (PWC 2002). Singapore. October. 2002.
  7. Clark, D., Partridge. C., Ramming, J.C., Wroclawski, J.T. "A Knowledge Plane for the Internet", in Proc. of SIGCOMM'03, 25-29 August 2003, Karlsruhe, Germany [damianou] Damianou, N., Dulay, N., Lupu, E., Sloman, M., (2001) "The Ponder Policy Specification Language", Proc. Policy 2001: Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks, Bristol, UK, 29-31 Jan. 2001, Springer-Verlag LNCS 1995, pp. 17-28
  8. Dunlop, N., Indulska, J., Raymond, K. (2003) "Methods for Conflict Resolution in Policy-based Management Systems", IEEE 7th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (EDOC'03), Sept 16 -19, 2003, Brisbane, Australia, pp 98-111
  9. Feeney, K., Lewis, D., Wade, V. "Policy-based Management for Internet Communities", in proc of 5th IEEE International Workshop on Policies and Distributed Systems and Networks, IEEE, 2004, pp 23-34
  10. Fitzpatrick, A., Biegel, G., Clarke, S., Cahill, "Towards a Sentient Object Model" In proceedings of the Engineering Context-aware Object-Oriented Systems and Environments workshop at OOPSLA 2002
  11. Horrocks, I., Patel-Schneider, P., Boley, H., Tabet, S., Grosof, B., Dean, M. (2003), "SWRL: A Semantic Web Rule Language Combining OWL and RuleML", version 0.5, 19th November 2003, http://www.daml.org/2003/11/swrl/
  12. Hull, R., Kumar, B., Lieuwen, D. (2003), "Towards federated Policy Management", IEEE 4th International Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks, June 04 -06, 2003, Lake Como, Italy, pp 183-196
  13. Hull, R., Kumar, B., Lieuwen, D., Patel-Schneider , P., Sahuguet , A., Varadarajan, S., Vyas, A. (2003), "Policy-based System for Personalized and Privacy-conscious User Data Sharing", Bell Labs Technical Memorandum, February, 2003.
  14. Kagal, L., Finin, T., Joshi, A., "A Policy Language for A Pervasive Computing Environment", IEEE 4th International Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks, June 04, 2003
  15. Kephart, J., Chess, D., "The Vision of Autonomic Computing", IEEE Computer, Jan 2003, pp 41-50.
  16. Kephart, J., Walsh, W., "An Artificial Intelligence Perspective on Autonomic Computing Policies", in proc of 5th IEEE International Workshop on Policies and Distributed Systems and Networks, IEEE, 2004, pp 3-12
  17. Lewis, D., Conlan, O., O'Sullivan, D., Wade, V. "Managing Adaptive Pervasive Computing using Knowledge-based Service Integration and Rule-based Behavior", in Proc. of 2004 IEEE/IFIP Network Operations and Management Systems, pp 901-902
  18. Lewis, D., Feeney, K., Tiropanis, T., Courtenage, S., "An Active, Ontology-driven Network Service for Internet Collaboration", in Proc of Semantic Web for Web Communities workshop, 2004, Valencia, Spain.
  19. Lupu, E.C, Sloman, M. (1999), "Conflicts in Policy-Based Distributed Systems Management", IEEE Transactions on software engineering, vol. 25, no. 6, November 1999. pp 852-69.
  20. Masuoka, R., Labrou, Y., Parsia, B., Sirin, E., "Ontology-Enables Pervasive Computing Applications", IEEE Intelligent Systems, Sept/Oct 2003, pp 68-72
  21. McIlraith, S.A., Son, T.C., Honglei Zeng, H. (2001), 'Semantic Web Services', IEEE Intelligent Systems, 16(2), March/April 2001 [medvidovic] Medvidovic, N. Taylor, R.N., (1997) "A framework for classifying and comparing architecture description languages", Proc. 6th. European Software Engineering Conference/Proc. 5th. Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Zurich, Switzerland, Sept. 1997, pp 60-76.
  22. Murray, K., Mathur, R., Pesch, D., "Adaptive Policy-Based Access Management in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks", in Proc of IEEE WPMC, Vol. 1, pp 325-329, Oct 2003
  23. Oberle, D., Staab, S., Volz, R., "An Application Server for the Semantic Web", in Porc of WWW'04, May 17-22, 2004, New York, USA, pp. 220-221.
  24. O'Sullivan, D., Lewis, D., "Semantically Driven Service Interoperability for Pervasive Computing", Proceedings of the 3rd ACM International Workshop on Data Engineering for Wireless and Mobile Access, San Diego, CA, USA, 19th September 2003, pp 17-24
  25. Owen, T., Rathke, J., Wakeman, I., Watson, D, "Implementing Policies in Programs using Labelled Transition Systems Tim Owen Julian", In Cosener's House Multi-Service Networks Conference, 2002, June 29, 2002
  26. W3C (2003) Ontology Web Language, http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/, Visited Apr 2003 [owls] "OWL-S: Semantic Markup for Web Services", The DAML Service Coalition, http://www.daml.org/services/, October 2002 [pietzuch] Peter R. Pietzuch and Jean Bacon. Peer-to-Peer Overlay Broker Networks in an Event-Based Middleware. In H. Arno Jacobsen, editor, Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Distributed Event-Based Systems (DEBS'03), ACM SIGMOD, San Diego, USA, June 2003. ACM.
  27. Sloman, M., Lupu, E., "Security and Management Policy Specification", IEEE Network, vol.16 No. 2, March/April 2002. pp 10-19.
  28. Stone, G.N., Lundy, B., Xie, G.G. (2001), "Network Policy Languages: A survey and a new approach", Network, IEEE , Volume: 15 , Issue: 1 , Jan.-Feb. 2001, pp10 -21 [stuckenschmidt] Stuckenschmidt, H., Vdovjak, R., Houben, G.J., Broekstra, J., "Index Structures and Algorithms for Querying Distributed RDF Repositories", in Proc. of World Wide Web Conference 2004, 17-22 May 2004, New York, NY, USA
  29. Tempich, C., Staab, S., Wranik, A., "REMINDIN': Semantic Query Routing in Peer- to-Peer Networks Based on Social Metaphors", in Proc. of World Wide Web Conference 2004, 17-22 May 2004, New York, NY, USA
  30. Terada, Tsutoma, Tsukamoto, M., Hayakawa, K., Yoshihisa, T., Kishino, Y., Kashitani, A., Nishio, S., "Ubiquitous Chip: A Rule-Based I/O Control Device for Ubiquitous Computing", in Proc Pervasive, 2004, LNCS 3001, pp. 238-253, 2004
  31. Tonti, G., Bradshaw, J.M., Jeffers, R., Montanari, R., Suri1, N., Uszok, A., "Semantic Web Languages for Policy Representation and Reasoning: A Comparison of KAoS, Rei, and Ponder" Proceedings of 2nd International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2003), October 20-23, 2003, Sanibel Island, Florida, USA
  32. Weiser, M. (1991), "The Computer of the 21st Century", Scientific American, vol. 265, no.3, September 1991, pp 66-75.
  33. Uszok, A., Bradshaw, J., Jeffers, R., Suri, N., Hayes, P., Breedy, M., Bunch, L., Johnson, M., Kulkari, S., Lott, J. (2003), "KAoS Policy and Domain Services: Toward a Description-Logic Approach to Policy Representation, Deconflictions, and Enforcement", IEEE 4th International Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks, June 04 -06, 2003, Lake Como, Italy, pp 93-98
  34. de Vergara, J.E.L., Villagra, V.A., Berrocal, J., "Applying the Web Ontology Language to Management Information Definitions", IEEE Communications Magazine, special issue on XML Management, Vol. 42, Issue 7, July 2004, pp. 68-74. ISSN 0163-6804

Related papers

The Design of a New Policy Model to Support Ontology-Driven Reasoning for Autonomic Networking
Neuman Souza

2007

The purpose of autonomic networking is to manage the business and technical complexity of networked components and systems. However, the lack of a common lingua franca makes it impossible to use vendor-specific network management data to ascertain the state of the network at any given time. Furthermore, the tools used to analyze management data, which include information and data models, ontologies, machine learning algorithms, and policy languages, are all different, and hence require different data in different formats. This paper describes a new version of the DENng policy model, which is part of the FOCALE autonomic network architecture. This new policy model has been built using three guiding principles: (1) the policy model is rooted in information models, so that it can govern managed entities, (2) the model is expressly constructed to facilitate the generation of ontologies, so that reasoning about policies constructed from the model may be done, and (3) the model is expressly constructed so that a policy language can be developed from it.

View PDFchevron_right
Policy-based Architecture to Enable Autonomic Communications
Sven van der Meer

The increase in complexity of network management systems and a consequent lack of association to business requirements has driven the need for autonomic communications. By integrating context information, autonomic computing can provide more efficient means to counter technical problems found in complex network systems and at the same time address associated business requirements. In this paper, we propose an autonomic communications architecture that manages complexity through policy-based management where we incorporate a shared information model integrated with knowledge-based reasoning mechanisms to provide selfgovernaning behavior.

View PDFchevron_right
Policy-based architecture to enable autonomic communications - a position paper
John Strassner

2006

The increase in complexity of network management systems and a consequent lack of association to business requirements has driven the need for autonomic communications. By integrating context information, autonomic computing can provide more efficient means to counter technical problems found in complex network systems and at the same time address associated business requirements. In this paper, we propose an autonomic communications architecture that manages complexity through policy-based management where we incorporate a shared information model integrated with knowledge-based reasoning mechanisms to provide selfgovernaning behavior.

View PDFchevron_right
An ontology-driven semantic bus for autonomic communication elements
Jeroen Famaey, John Strassner, Steven Latré

2010

Recently, autonomics have been proposed as a solution to tackle the ever-increasing management complexity of large-scale computing and communications infrastructures. Over time, the control loops used to orchestrate the intelligent behaviour of autonomic management architectures have evolved from fully static to highly-dynamic loops comprised of loosely coupled management components. Communication and other interactions between these components is facilitated by a communications substrate. Additionally, in order to achieve truly autonomic behaviour, the interacting components need to be able to understand each other, justifying the need for semantically enriched communications. In this paper, we present a novel semantic communications bus that orchestrates interactions between the components of an autonomic control loop. It employs ontology-based reasoning in order to establish communication contracts, validate message consistency and support semantic topic subscriptions. Additionally, a prototype was designed, implemented and its performance evaluated.

View PDFchevron_right
Ontological Semantics for Distributing Contextual Knowledge in Highly Distributed Autonomic Systems
Declan O'Sullivan

Journal of Network and Systems Management, 2007

Much recent research has focused on applying Autonomic Computing principles to achieve constrained selfmanagement in adaptive systems, through self-monitoring and analysis, strategy planning, and self adjustment.

View PDFchevron_right

Related topics

  • Computer Science
  • Ontology
  • Semantics
  • Systems Engineering
  • Autonomic Computing
  • Semantics (Computer Science)
  • Autonomic Communication
  • Requirements Management
  • Communication Service

    • Cited by

    Ontology-Based Policy Refinement Using SWRL Rules for Management Information Definitions in OWL
    Victor Villagra

    Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2006

    The goal of ontology-based management is to improve the manageability of network resources through the application of formal ontologies. Prior research work has studied their application to represent the management information definitions, the mapping and merging processes to obtain a semantic integration of those definitions, and the representation of behaviour and policy definitions. Using ontologies allows the additional advantage of integrating, in the same semantic manager, business and service level ontologies with the network management ontology, in a framework for automated management. This integration allows for policy refinement and interoperation between high level policies and low level policies.

    View PDFchevron_right
    Handling Dynamic Organizational Change with Community-Based Policy Management
    Vincent Wade

    Eighth IEEE International Workshop on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks (POLICY'07), 2007

    Policy-based management (PBM) aims to provide flexibility in the management of resources so as to readily reflect changing business goals. However, as organizations increasingly use electronic means for more of their core business operations, the ability to ensure that policies accurately reflect the operation of an organization becomes more challenging. This paper presents a critique of organizational modeling abstractions used in existing policy and access rule schemes. It then uses a detailed case study to explain how Community Based Policy Management can provide a more flexible approach to managing organizational change than the organizational abstractions currently proposed for PBM, in particular in comparison to roles.

    View PDFchevron_right
    580 California St., Suite 400
    San Francisco, CA, 94104
    © 2025 Academia. All rights reserved