Christian Erfurth

TRACY-a prototype of an architected middleware to support mobile agents

TRACY is a prototype of a middleware architecture that supports the migration of agents (in our definition: self contained, autonomous objects) in heterogeneous networks with the aim to complement more traditional distributed architectures. TRACY supports a weak form of (optimized) agent migration in a network of agent servers and implements local message passing between agents. Derived from a concise evaluation of requirements, mostly targeted towards eCommerce and Intranet applications, TRACY is based on a three layer architecture model that supports a clean separation of concerns. A fully functional prototype of TRACY is by now ready for a first release and will be offered to system developers on the basis of an open-source venture. Currently, we are developing an industrial strength reference installation with a partner in the transport and logistics domain. The focus of this paper are the lessons learned during requirements analysis and system design, and the architecture of TRACY.

Performance Evaluation of Various Migration Strategies for Mobile Agents

In the last years several prototypes of mobile agent systems were developed. Based on the programming language and available transmission techniques, several ways of migrating a mobile agent has been implemented. We can divide pull and push strategies. A strategy in the first class uses dynamic download techniques to transmit only necessary code, whereas a strategy in the second class always transmits all agent’s code to the next platform. In this paper we give an overview of state-of-the-art migration strategies for mobile agents and compare them with regard to network load and transmission time. We propose a simple mathematical model to show the influence of various network parameters, and present results of first measurements to point out that there is no strategy that in all cases leads to a minimum transmission time.

Student Interaction Communities social requirements reflected by a tool and system landscape

What will the future learning and academic support environment look like for students? What are the resulting requirements for a suitable tool landscape? As an active member of different communities, students already use a set of tools especially for communication and networking purposes. Students do not stop the usage of their social tools within their universities. However, universities provide their own tools for students to be connected with the organization. Which tools are out of fashion? Which tool classes are needed? And how is the degree of integration to be achieved with common community tools and systems? This paper analyses requirements from the student point of view and discusses aspects for the integration into an academic IT infrastructure.

MobiSoft: Networked Personal Assistants for Mobile Users in Everyday Life

This paper provides an overview of the MobiSoft project, its ideas and aims as well as the achieved results. In MobiSoft, we applied mobile software agents to support humans in their mobile everyday life. We developed a generic application framework that can be customized to fit into completely different scenarios ranging from industry use cases to social human interactions during leisure time. We describe this framework as well as several prototypes that demonstrate its general applicability. This paper also delivers first results of a survey at the university campus, that tried to capture user interest in personal assistants and mobile applications in general.

Assistant-based mobile supply chain management

This paper describes our approach for changing the way supply chain management is performed today. We aim to support human interactors with software assistants which will perform most of the tedious tasks like negotiating on new contracts, handling and altering production workflows or managing the stock. Additionally, our assistants will have the ability to move from one machine to another allowing a more flexible transfer of information and new ways for handling specific tasks. The owner of those assistants can be informed at any time by allowing its representative to move back to his notebook, PDA or mobile phone and presenting some results. Or the assistant may ask for advice in case of an error

SOGOS - A Distributed Meta Level Architecture for the Self-Organizing Grid of Services

Handling highly dynamic scenarios as they arise in emergency situations requires lots of semantic information about the situation and an extremely flexible, selforganizing IT infrastructure that provides services that can be used to manage the situation. We show that a distributed meta level architecture is particularly suited for the implementation of such a self-organizing grid of services. This architecture (SOGOS) distinguishes between an object level and a meta level. The middleware processes of the grid are running on the object level. The meta level defines an explicitly and declaratively represented dynamic meta model that provides the semantics for the object level processes. Additionally, this level runs processes that plan, supervise and control mobile agents on the object level. The levels are linked together by reflection processes that ensure that relevant changes on the object level are reflected in the meta model and vice versa. The corresponding reflection principles provide the basis for the implementation of the selforganizing mechanisms that govern the overall system.

Model-Driven Engineering with Large Models in the Context of Product Line Engineering with IBYKUS AP

In software engineering practice models of software systems become more and more important and play a decisive role. Different model-driven approaches are followed by enterprises to achieve more efficient development techniques and higher flexibility. Practice has also shown that models reach a size and complexity that is hard to handle. Over the last years, IBYKUS, a midsized software vendor with focus on product line engineering in the domain of business, administration and governmental processes, has put an effort into the development environment IBYKUS AP which supports model-driven engineering. This paper describes the state of the used techniques on a conceptual level in the first part. The idea of incremental modeling and editable model views is presented in the second part accompanied with research questions to be tackled in future.

Digital Transformation in Companies - Challenges and Success Factors.

New supply networks, more automation, self-regulating products - the opportunities of digital transformation seem infinite. Some companies are facing very solid issues when it comes to implementing Industry 4.0. As part of the research project “Healthy Work in Pioneer Industries”, case studies were conducted with companies and reflected on the current state of research. It can be said that companies have fundamental challenges in mastering the digital transformation: Isolatory thinking, no active knowledge management, underestimation of digitalisation and lack of knowledge, no resources and no awareness of digitalisation tended to be identified as deficits. There are also examples of how companies are successfully addressing digital transformation. The identified success factors are the creation of innovation areas, networking across company boundaries, the application of agile methods, the motivation to try out new things and the active management of digital transformation in the company. In this paper, we discuss obstacle and success factors we observed in our case studies on basis of a cross case study analysis.

Potentials and Requirements of an Integrated Solution for a Connected Car

Within our society, individuality, comfort and mobility play an important role for working, travelling and living environments. Especially with the connectivity of a car to its environment, e.g. sensors, the communication to another car, to infrastructure communication and provisioning of relevant information to driver, can be considered as valuable technology of the future. An integrated solution for a connected car can be used for a safe, intelligent and comfortable mobility. Although there are significant results from research projects concerning car-to-x, e.g. simTD, and other infotainment and entertainment projects available, an integrated concept that covers general technical requirements, the drivers’ needs and business aspects is hard to find on the market. Significant requirements derived from technical and market insights are evaluated. These findings reflect the introduction of an integrated architecture that covers car-to-x communication, info- and entertainment and IT-security aspects.

Evaluation of self-organizing communication mechanisms within a communication platform for disaster management

The request for IT support in rescue missions is getting stronger. In complex situations like Mass Casualty Incidents it is hard to get a good situation report which is essential for proper decisions. The requirements on IT are manifold and the development of reliable systems with networked devices is difficult and long. Additionally the evaluation of a system or its components cannot be limited on tests in some training. This paper describes an evaluation of the communication layer within a prototypical rescue management system developed by the SpeedUp project. The evaluation is done with the help of a simulation where professional and technical aspects are taken into account. Different classical routing mechanisms are compared with an approach using mobile software agents.