Self-Organization and Autonomic Informatics (I)


Book Description

Today’s IT systems with its ever-growing communication infrastructures and computing applications are becoming more and more large in scale, which results in exponential complexity in their engineering, operation and maintenance. Recently, it has widely been recognized that self-organization and self-management / regulation offer the most promising approach to addressing such challenges. Self-organization and adaptation are concepts stemming from the nature and have been adopted in systems theory. They are considered to be the essential ingredients of any living organism and, as such, are studied intensively in biology, sociology and organizational theory. They have also penetrated into control theory, cybernetics and the study of adaptive complex systems. Computing and communication systems are basically artificial systems. This prevents conventional self-organization and adaptation principles and approaches from being directly applicable to computing and communication systems. The methodology of multi-agent systems and the technology of Grid computing have shed lights for the exploration into the self-organization and adaptation of large-scale complex IT systems. This book provides in-depth thoughts about the above discussed challenges as well as a range of state-of-the-art methodologies and technologies for the entirely new area. We refer to this newly emerging area as Self-Organization and Autonomic Informatics, which has represented the future generation of IT systems, comprised of communication infrastructures and computing applications, which are inherently large-scale, complex and open.




Advances in Applied Self-Organizing Systems


Book Description

How do we design a self-organizing system? Is it possible to validate and control non-deterministic dynamics? What is the right balance between the emergent patterns that bring robustness, adaptability and scalability, and the traditional need for verification and validation of the outcomes? The last several decades have seen much progress from original ideas of “emergent functionality” and “design for emergence”, to sophisticated mathematical formalisms of “guided self-organization”. And yet the main challenge remains, attracting the best scientific and engineering expertise to this elusive problem. This book presents state-of-the-practice of successfully engineered self-organizing systems, and examines ways to balance design and self-organization in the context of applications. As demonstrated in this second edition of Advances in Applied Self-Organizing Systems, finding this balance helps to deal with practical challenges as diverse as navigation of microscopic robots within blood vessels, self-monitoring aerospace vehicles, collective and modular robotics adapted for autonomous reconnaissance and surveillance, self-managing grids and multiprocessor scheduling, data visualization and self-modifying digital and analog circuitry, intrusion detection in computer networks, reconstruction of hydro-physical fields, traffic management, immunocomputing and nature-inspired computation. Many algorithms proposed and discussed in this volume are biologically inspired, and the reader will also gain an insight into cellular automata, genetic algorithms, artificial immune systems, snake-like locomotion, ant foraging, birds flocking, neuromorphic circuits, amongst others. Demonstrating the practical relevance and applicability of self-organization, Advances in Applied Self-Organizing Systems will be an invaluable tool for advanced students and researchers in a wide range of fields.




Autonomous Systems – Self-Organization, Management, and Control


Book Description

The 2008 TUB-SJTU joint workshop on “Autonomous Systems – Self-Organization, Management, and Control” was held on October 6, 2008 at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. The workshop, sponsored by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Technical University of Berlin brought together scientists and researchers from both universities to present and discuss the latest progress on autonomous systems and its applications in diverse areas. Autonomous systems are designed to integrate machines, computing, sensing, and software to create intelligent systems capable of interacting with the complexities of the real world. Autonomous systems represent the physical embodiment of machine intelligence. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to theory and modeling for autonomous systems; organization of autonomous systems; learning and perception; complex systems; multi-agent systems; robotics and control; applications of autonomous systems.




Self-Organization in Sensor and Actor Networks


Book Description

Self-Organization in Sensor and Actor Networks explores self-organization mechanisms and methodologies concerning the efficient coordination between intercommunicating autonomous systems.Self-organization is often referred to as the multitude of algorithms and methods that organise the global behaviour of a system based on inter-system communication. Studies of self-organization in natural systems first took off in the 1960s. In technology, such approaches have become a hot research topic over the last 4-5 years with emphasis upon management and control in communication networks, and especially in resource-constrained sensor and actor networks. In the area of ad hoc networks new solutions have been discovered that imitate the properties of self-organization. Some algorithms for on-demand communication and coordination, including data-centric networking, are well-known examples. Key features include: Detailed treatment of self-organization, mobile sensor and actor networks, coordination between autonomous systems, and bio-inspired networking. Overview of the basic methodologies for self-organization, a comparison to central and hierarchical control, and classification of algorithms and techniques in sensor and actor networks. Explanation of medium access control, ad hoc routing, data-centric networking, synchronization, and task allocation issues. Introduction to swarm intelligence, artificial immune system, molecular information exchange. Numerous examples and application scenarios to illustrate the theory. Self-Organization in Sensor and Actor Networks will prove essential reading for students of computer science and related fields; researchers working in the area of massively distributed systems, sensor networks, self-organization, and bio-inspired networking will also find this reference useful.




Self-organizing Coalitions for Managing Complexity


Book Description

This book provides an interdisciplinary approach to complexity, combining ideas from areas like complex networks, cellular automata, multi-agent systems, self-organization and game theory. The first part of the book provides an extensive introduction to these areas, while the second explores a range of research scenarios. Lastly, the book presents CellNet, a software framework that offers a hands-on approach to the scenarios described throughout the book. In light of the introductory chapters, the research chapters, and the CellNet simulating framework, this book can be used to teach undergraduate and master’s students in disciplines like artificial intelligence, computer science, applied mathematics, economics and engineering. Moreover, the book will be particularly interesting for Ph.D. and postdoctoral researchers seeking a general perspective on how to design and create their own models.




Self-Organizing Systems


Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Workshop on Self-Organizing Systems, IWSOS 2006. The book offers 16 revised full papers and 6 revised short papers together with 2 invited talks and 3 poster papers. The papers are organized in topical sections on dynamics of structured and unstructured overlays, self-organization in peer-to-peer networks, self-organization in wireless environments, self-organization in distributed and grid computing, self-managing and autonomic computing, and more.




Workflows for e-Science


Book Description

This is a timely book presenting an overview of the current state-of-the-art within established projects, presenting many different aspects of workflow from users to tool builders. It provides an overview of active research, from a number of different perspectives. It includes theoretical aspects of workflow and deals with workflow for e-Science as opposed to e-Commerce. The topics covered will be of interest to a wide range of practitioners.




Self-organising Software


Book Description

Self-organisation, self-regulation, self-repair and self-maintenance are promising conceptual approaches for dealing with complex distributed interactive software and information-handling systems. Self-organising applications dynamically change their functionality and structure without direct user intervention, responding to changes in requirements and the environment. This is the first book to offer an integrated view of self-organisation technologies applied to distributed systems, particularly focusing on multiagent systems. The editors developed this integrated book with three aims: to explain self-organisation concepts and principles, using clear definitions and a strong theoretical background; to examine how self-organising behaviour can be modelled, analysed and systematically engineered into agent behaviour; and to assess the types of problems that can be solved using self-organising multiagent systems. The book comprises chapters covering all three dimensions, synthesising up-to-date research work and the latest technologies and applications. The book offers dedicated chapters on concepts such as self-organisation, emergence in natural systems, software agents, stigmergy, gossip, cooperation and immune systems. The book then explains how to engineer artificial self-organising software, in particular it examines methodologies and middleware infrastructures. Finally, the book presents diverse applications of self-organising software, such as constraint satisfaction, trust management, image recognition and networking. The book will be of interest to researchers working on emergent phenomena and adaptive systems. It will also be suitable for use as a graduate textbook, with chapter summaries and exercises, and an accompanying website that includes teaching slides, exercise solutions and research project outlines. Self-organisation, self-regulation, self-repair and self-maintenance are promising conceptual approaches for dealing with complex distributed interactive software and information-handling systems. Self-organising applications dynamically change their functionality and structure without direct user intervention, responding to changes in requirements and the environment. This is the first book to offer an integrated view of self-organisation technologies applied to distributed systems, particularly focusing on multiagent systems. The editors developed this integrated book with three aims: to explain self-organisation concepts and principles, using clear definitions and a strong theoretical background; to examine how self-organising behaviour can be modelled, analysed and systematically engineered into agent behaviour; and to assess the types of problems that can be solved using self-organising multiagent systems. The book comprises chapters covering all three dimensions, synthesising up-to-date research work and the latest technologies and applications. The book offers dedicated chapters on concepts such as self-organisation, emergence in natural systems, software agents, stigmergy, gossip, cooperation and immune systems. The book then explains how to engineer artificial self-organising software, in particular it examines methodologies and middleware infrastructures. Finally, the book presents diverse applications of self-organising software, such as constraint satisfaction, trust management, image recognition and networking. The book will be of interest to researchers working on emergent phenomena and adaptive systems. It will also be suitable for use as a graduate textbook, with chapter summaries and exercises, and an accompanying website that includes teaching slides, exercise solutions and research project outlines.




Self-Organizing Systems


Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th IFIP TC 6 International Workshop on Self-Organizing Systems, IWSOS 2012, held in Delft, The Netherlands, in March 2012. The 5 revised full papers and 5 short papers presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully selected from 25 full paper and 8 short paper submissions. The papers address the following key topics: design and analysis of self-organizing and self-managing systems; inspiring models of self-organization in nature and society; structure, characteristics and dynamics of self-organizing networks; techniques and tools for modeling self-organizing systems; robustness and adaptation in self-organizing systems; self-organization in complex networks like peer-to-peer, sensor, ad-hoc, vehicular and social networks; control of self-organizing systems; decentralized power management in the smart grid; self-organizing group and pattern formation; self-organizing mechanisms for task allocation, coordination and resource allocation; self-organizing information dissemination and content search; and risks and limits of self-organization.




Design and Deployment of Small Cell Networks


Book Description

This comprehensive resource covers everything you need to know about small cell networks, from design, to analysis, optimization and deployment. Detailing fundamental concepts as well as more advanced topics, and describing emerging trends, challenges and recent research results, this book explains how you can improve performance, decision making, resource management, and energy efficiency in next generation wireless networks. Key topics covered include green small cell networks and associated trade-offs, optimized design and performance analysis, backhauling and traffic overloading, context-aware self-organizing networks, deployment strategies and mobility management in large scale HetNets. Written by leading experts in academia and industry and including tools and techniques for small cell network design and deployment, this is an ideal resource for graduate students, researchers and industry practitioners working in communications and networking.