Juan Boubeta-Puig

A model-driven approach for facilitating user-friendly design of complex event patterns

Complex Event Processing (CEP) is an emerging technology which allows us to efficiently process and correlate huge amounts of data in order to discover relevant or critical situations of interest (complex events) for a specific domain. This technology requires domain experts to define complex event patterns, where the conditions to be detected are specified by means of event processing languages. However, these experts face the handicap of defining such patterns with editors which are not user-friendly enough. To solve this problem, a model-driven approach for facilitating user-friendly design of complex event patterns is proposed and developed in this paper. Besides, the proposal has been applied to different domains and several event processing languages have been compared. As a result, we can affirm that the presented approach is independent both of the domain where CEP technology has to be applied to and of the concrete event processing language required for defining event patterns.

MEdit4CEP: A model-driven solution for real-time decision making in SOA 2.0

Abstract Organizations all around the world need to manage huge amounts of data from heterogeneous sources every day in order to conduct decision making processes. This requires them to infer what the value of such data is for the business in question through data analysis as well as acting promptly for critical or relevant situations. Complex Event Processing (CEP) is a technology that helps tackle this issue by detecting event patterns in real time. However, this technology forces domain experts to define these patterns indicating such situations and the appropriate actions to be executed in their information systems, generally based on Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs). In particular, these users face the incommodity of implementing these patterns manually or by using editors which are not user-friendly enough. To deal with this problem, a model-driven solution for real-time decision making in event-driven SOAs is proposed and conducted in this paper. This approach allows the integration of CEP with this architecture type as well as defining CEP domain and event pattern through a graphical and intuitive editor, which also permits automatic code generation. Moreover, the solution is evaluated and its benefits are discussed. As a result, we can assert this is a novel solution for bringing CEP technology closer to any user, positively impacting on business decision making processes.

ModeL4CEP: Graphical domain-specific modeling languages for CEP domains and event patterns

Abstract Complex event processing (CEP) is a cutting-edge technology that allows the analysis and correlation of large volumes of data with the aim of detecting complex and meaningful events through the use of event patterns, as well as permitting the inference of valuable knowledge for end users. Despite the great advantages that CEP can bring to expert or intelligent business systems, it poses a substantial challenge to their users, who are business experts but do not have the necessary knowledge and experience using this technology. The main problem these users have to face is precisely hand-writing the code for event pattern definition, which requires them to implement the conditions to be met to detect relevant situations for the domain in question by using a particular event processing language (EPL). In order to respond to this need, in this paper we propose both a graphical domain-specific modeling language (DSML) for facilitating CEP domain definitions by domain experts, and a graphical DSML for event pattern definition by non-technological users. The proposed languages provide high expressiveness and flexibility and are independent of event patterns and actions’ implementation code. This way, domain experts can define the relevant event types and patterns within their business domain, without having to be experts on EPL programming, nor on other complicated computer science technological issues, beyond an understandable and intuitive graphical definition. Furthermore, with these DSMLs, users will also be able to define the actions to be automatically taken once a pattern is detected in the system. Further benefits of these DSMLs are evaluated and discussed in depth in this paper.

Analogies and Differences between Mutation Operators for WS-BPEL 2.0 and Other Languages

Applying mutation testing to a program written in a certain language requires that a set of mutation operators is defined for that language. The mutation operators need to adequately cover the features of that language in order to be effective. In this work, we evaluate qualitatively the operators defined for the Web Services Business Process Execution Language 2.0 (WS-BPEL) and study the differences and similarities between WS-BPEL and other languages. We review the existing operators for several structured and object-oriented general-purpose programming languages, and for several domain-specific languages. Results confirm that WS-BPEL is very different from other languages, as half of the mutation operators for this language are equivalent to those of other languages. Our study concludes that the set of WS-BPEL mutation operators can be improved.

COLLECT: COLLaborativE ConText-aware service oriented architecture for intelligent decision-making in the Internet of Things

Abstract Internet of Things (IoT) has radically transformed the world; currently, every device can be connected to the Internet and provide valuable information for decision-making. In spite of the fast evolution of technologies accompanying the grow of IoT, we are still faced with the challenge of providing a service oriented architecture, which facilitates the inclusion of data coming together from several IoT devices, data delivery among a systems agents, real-time data processing and service provision to users. Furthermore, context-aware data processing and architectures still pose a challenge, in spite of being key requirements in order to get stronger IoT architectures. To face this challenge, we propose a COLLaborative ConText Aware Service Oriented Architecture (COLLECT), which facilitates both the integration of IoT heterogeneous domain context data — through the use of a light message broker — and easy data delivery among several agents and collaborative participants in the system — making use of an enterprise service bus —. In addition, this architecture provides real-time data processing thanks to the use of a complex event processing engine as well as services and intelligent decision-making procedures to users according to the needs of the domain in question. As a result, COLLECT has a great impact on context-aware decentralized and collaborative reasoning for IoT, promoting context-aware intelligent decision making in such scope. Since context-awareness is key for a wide range of recommender and intelligent systems, the presented novel solution improves decision making in a large number of fields where such systems require to promptly process a variety of ubiquitous collaborative and context-aware data.

Hierarchical events for efficient distributed network analysis and surveillance

Computer networks are elemental for todays Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. Maintaining operational computer networks is an important and challenging task. For this task the information gathered with means of network analysis and surveillance is the very basis. Detailed network analysis and surveillance is one of the key factors for assuring operational computer networks. However, network analysis and surveillance also poses many challenges like huge performance requirements or distributed application. In this paper we evaluate how event-based data processing and Complex Event Processing (CEP) can be leveraged for addressing these issues by enabling scalable event hierarchies.

Complex Event Processing Modeling by Prioritized Colored Petri Nets

Complex event processing (CEP) is a technology that allows us to process and correlate large volumes of data by using event patterns, aiming at promptly detecting specific situations that could require special treatment. The event types and event patterns for a particular application domain are implemented by using an event processing language (EPL). Although some current model-driven tools allow end users to easily define these patterns, which are then transformed automatically into a particular EPL, the generated code is syntactically but not semantically validated. To deal with this problem, a prioritized colored Petri net (PCPN) model for CEP is proposed and conducted in this paper. This well-known graphical formalism together with CPNTools makes possible the modeling, simulation, analysis, and semantic validation of complex event-based systems. To illustrate this approach, a case study is presented, as well as a discussion on the benefits from using PCPN for modeling CEP-based systems.

CARED-SOA: A Context-Aware Event-Driven Service-Oriented Architecture

Currently, context awareness has become essential in software applications and services owing to the high demand by users, especially for mobile computing applications. This need to provide context awareness requires a software infrastructure not only to receive context information but also to make use of it so that it provides advantageous services that may be customized according to user needs. In this paper, we provide an event-driven service-oriented architecture supported by an enterprise service bus, which will facilitate the incorporation of Internet of Things data and provide real-time context-aware services. The result, which has been validated through a real-world case study, is a scalable context-aware architecture which can be applied in a wide spectrum of domains.

MEdit4CEP-Gam: A model-driven approach for user-friendly gamification design, monitoring and code generation in CEP-based systems

Abstract Context Gamification has been proven to increase engagement and motivation in multiple and different non-game contexts such as healthcare, education, workplace, and marketing, among others. However, many of these applications fail to achieve the desired benefits of gamification, mainly because of a poor design. Objective This paper explores the conceptualization, implementation and monitoring phases of meaningful gamification strategies and proposes a solution for strategy experts that hides the implementation details and helps them focus only on what is crucial for the success of the strategy. The solution makes use of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) and Complex Event Processing (CEP) technology. Method An easy-to-use graphical editor is used to provide the high-level models that represent the design of the gamification strategy and its deployment and monitoring. These models contain the event pattern definitions to be automatically transformed into code. This code is then deployed both in a CEP engine to detect the conditions expressed in such patterns and in an enterprise service bus to execute the corresponding pattern actions. Results The paper reports on the use of both a graphical modeling editor for gamification domain definition and a graphical modeling editor for gamification strategy design, monitoring and code generation in event-based systems. It also shows how the proposal can be used to design and automate the implementation and monitoring of a gamification strategy in an educational domain supported by a well-known Learning Management System (LMS) such as Moodle. Conclusion It can be concluded that this unprecedented model-driven approach leveraging gamification and CEP technology provides strategy experts with the ability to graphically define gamification strategies, which can be directly transformed into code executable by event-based systems. Therefore, this is a novel solution for bringing CEP closer to any strategy expert, positively influencing the gamification strategy design, implementation and real-time monitoring processes.

Complex event processing applied to early maritime threat detection

In recent decades the globalization has caused a huge increase of ship movements carrying goods and passengers between countries. It makes quite difficult to detect manually critical or relevant situations that may occur in marine traffic. In this paper, we propose an event-driven service-oriented-architecture that combines the complex event processing and data distribution system, building a high performance and available system for analyzing and correlating data provided by ships automatic identification systems in real time. This architecture will be able to detect automatically, and as soon as possible, abnormal situations occurred in seas all over the world. For this, a set of complex event patterns for detecting AIS hijacking or failure, as well as ship engine malfunction or ship collision is proposed and defined in this work.