Alba Amato

Model-driven engineering of cloud components in MetaMORPhOSY

Cloud architecture is established as a standard for services provisioning. Discovering of services is a hard task since several services have to be analysed. The mOSAIC project aims at providing a framework for searching and interfacing services from multiple vendors. Its main component, the cloud agency, provides searching and wrapping features and the management of Services Level Agreements SLAs. In this scenario, validating services requirements is appealing. Usually users are forced to use SLAs pre-offered by providers that need to reconfigure cloud components in order to meet requests. Model-Driven Engineering MDE methodologies allow for requirements verification during all life cycle of systems. They can be exploited in definition of models for cloud components that have to be used and configured in order to fulfil requested service levers. Here, the MetaMORPhOSY methodology and framework are introduced and applied to the verification of SLAs in the mOSAIC platform.

Multi-objective Decision Support for Brokering of Cloud SLA

The selection of Cloud providers, whose offers best fit the requirements of a particular application, is a complex issue due to the heterogeneity of the Cloud services, resources, technology and service levels offered by the several providers. In this paper, we illustrate a model for the resolution of a problem of choice between alternatives, when numerous and often contradictory points of view must be taken simultaneously in consideration. We describe its implementation inside Cloud Agency to broker the proposals that best fit users needs.

Describing Cloud Use Case in MetaMORP(h)OSY

The increasing complexity of services required by users in Cloud Environments usually needs the definition of composite, value added services (VAS). Usage patterns and Use Cases definitions help in defining VAS, but a way to assure that new services reach the required goals with proper qualitative and quantitative properties has to be provided in order to validate design and implementation of composite services. In this paper the MetaMORP(h)OSY methodology and framework are introduced. The methodology uses Model Driven Engineering and Model Transformation techniques to analyze composite services. Due to the complexity of the systems to analyze, MetaMORP(h)OSY exploits Multi Agent System (MAS) in system definition. The methodology is used in order to define a model for a Use Case of the mosaic project.

Cloud Brokering as a Service

Cloud computing is a technology of enormous scope for innovation especially in a volatile market and rapidly evolving, in which, the ability to exploit new technologies and remaining competitive is more important. However the choice of Cloud providers, whose offers best fit the requirements of a particular application, is a complex issue due to the variety of potential options and the number of variables to consider. In this paper we propose a distributed cloud broker that have the main task of selecting dynamically a set of Cloud resources, from different vendors, that best fits users requirements. Brokering has been developed as a service over the Cloud to exploit the elasticity of such compute utility and to provide scalability respect to a dynamic changing workload.

Semantically Augmented Exploitation of Pervasive Environments by Intelligent Agents

Mobile devices can be used to improve the exploitation of reality by the user in pervasive environments. In this paper we present a software framework for augmenting the users perception of reality by innovative applications and services. Mobile applications enable handheld devices to get information from pervasive sensors, as their own perceptors, in order to let the users benefit of context awareness. Furthermore they exploit information from the field to improve delivery of ubiquitous services and presentation of multimedia contents. We implemented tools to support experts in the domain of the Cultural Heritage to augment the archaeological site with these kind of services. Besides we developed a tourist guide that supports users visit and enhances his cultural experience by an intelligent discovering and delivery of those information, which are relevant to the users profile and to the environment conditions. In our approach software agents adapt themselves in response to a changing environment and are able to respond differently, creating entirely new plans, and thus changing their own behavior depending on their perceptions.

Software Agents for Collaborating Smart Solar-Powered Micro-Grids

Solar electricity is one of the options as innovative approach as primary energy use. It could be deployed decentralised into the urban areas, and could alleviate the carbonised electricity demand drastically. Information and communication technologies (ICT) could be exploited to provide real time information on energy consumption in a home or a building giving the possibility to citizens to take decisions in order to save energy. In this context CoSSMic, an ICT European project, aims at fostering a higher rate of self-consumption of decentralised renewable energy production by innovative autonomic systems for management and control of power micro-grids on users behalf. The paper addresses these challenges and discusses related work dealing with the development of an ICT solution using software agents which collaborate in a neighborhood, and with the central power grid, over a peer-to-peer overlay.

A Distributed System for Smart Energy Negotiation

Distributed energy production by Solar Panels is really wide-spread today. However the mismatch between production and consumption during the day, and expensiveness of energy storages, limits an high rate of self-consumption. In fact the overall overproduction is currently reversed into the power grid and delivered to the energy provider. In this context the CoSSMic project aims at developing a distributed software architecture that allows for the collaboration among neighbors, both to schedule the consumptions and the exchange of energy, in order to maximize the self-consumption of micro grids. This paper focus on the architecture design, scouting of technology and preliminary demonstrator.

Personalized Recommendation of Semantically Annotated Media Contents

The optimal decision about the best set of recommendations to the user is a relevant problem in different application contexts. Here we focus on a methodology for dynamically and efficiently retrieval and delivery of multimedia contents, like documents, images, video etc., which have been annotated with semantic information. We introduce the definition and the computation of the similarity between sets of concepts belonging to a common ontology and discrete optimization technique for choosing the ones to be recommended.We enable personal agents reasoning about the best set of recommendations, which are relevant to the user’s profile, so optimizing his/her satisfaction. We present its implementation in a framework that supports experts in the domain of the Cultural Heritage to augment the archaeological site with a set of multimedia contents.

A Semantic Framework for Delivery of Context-Aware Ubiquitous Services in Pervasive Environments

Pervasive environments offer to software applications the possibility to interact with the reality in order to perceive the information surrounding the users and to adapt the environment itself, or to deliver context aware services that improve users satisfaction. These services are able to respond in a rational way in many different situations choosing the actions with the best expected result, so making environment not just more connected and efficient, but smarter. In order to provide a pervasive environment with advanced smart capabilities services, we integrated those technologies that enable objects of the real world to become part of the Internet of Things. Besides semantic-based techniques have been used to dynamically and efficiently data processing, retrieval and delivery. Here we present a semantic framework that provides the technology for the development of intelligent, context aware services and their delivery in pervasive environments.

Multi-agent Negotiation of Decentralized Energy Production in Smart Micro-grid

SmartGrid is an electricity network that can intelligently integrate the actions of all users connected to it in order to efficiently deliver sustainable, economic and secure electricity supplies. In this context the CoSSMic project aims at fostering a higher rate of self-consumption of decentralized renewable energy production, using innovative autonomic systems for management and control of power micro-grids on users behalf. To achieve this goal we have designed an ICT framework that integrates different appliances such as smartmeters, solar panels, batteries, etc., providing a common platform to support sharing of information and negotiation of energy exchanges between power producers and storages in accordance with policies defined by owners, weather forecasts, and habits and plans of participants.