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Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
StrawmanAgent Reference Architecture
(DARPA ISO coABS Program - Draft 8-31-98)
Craig ThompsonObject Services and Consulting, Inc. (OBJS)[email protected], http://www.objs.com
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
DARPA coABS Objectives
DoD Problem
• Joint Vision 2010• ABIS Study• DARPA ISO next generation architecture
The Vision
• networked society where every software artifact, information source, and device is connected and running in parallel
• intelligent automation-- application connectivity where networks of agents self-organize at run-time
• scaleable, evolvable, reliable, secure, survivable, ...
The Challenges
• what is an agent - an object with an attitude• control and complexity - agent, ensemble and system behavior that is predicable
and bounded• scalability and pervasiveness - agents for the masses
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Object Component Agent ?
• state• behavior• encapsulation• inheritance
• reflection• packaging• serialization• repository
• TBD
Passing the Agent Test
What is an Agent?
deconstructionist view:agents augment objects with additional capabilities
• ACL• process inside• agent framework• planning• mobility• rules• …• goal/task-oriented• autonomous• ontologies• collaborative/teams
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
• software that acts as a human’s agent to provide some service or function in an intelligent manner
• modular software that exhibits some of these properties: autonomy, mobility, intelligence
• objects with an attitude -- component software constructed according to certain principles and/or mechanisms, e.g., objects that use an ACL to communicate, objects that make use of a planner, …
• more definitions at:http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Thinktank/4633/Agents_definition.html
What is an agent?
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
The presentation consists of a list of views of the Agent Reference Architecture
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Operational Payoff View
“Make it so!”WarfighterINTERNET
UserAgent
TaskAgent
InfoAgent
ProcessAgent
Agent systems offer the potential for rapid comprehensive response and adaptation to the dynamic battlefield.
what the end-user sees
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Target operational requirements:
• Humans and agents connect to the agent grid anytime from anywhere and get the information and capability they need. Enable teams led by humans and staffed by agents.
• Intelligent automation -- easier application connectivity where networks of agents self-organized at run-time. Reduce the 60% of time in command and control systems spent manipulating stovepipes; incrementally replace stovepipes.
• Connect the $40B worth of DoD equipment that currently only interoperates with one or two other components, permitting better knowledge sharing. Another example is a process improvement in factory 1 is broadcast immediately to factories 2..N.
• Agent-enable object and web applications to reconfigure as new data and function is added to the system. Add capability modularly. Stable, scaleable, evolvable, reliable, secure, survivable, ...
• Scale to millions of agents so agents are pervasive and information and computation is not restricted to machine or organization boundaries.
• Survivable so if one agent goes down, another takes its place;
Requirements View
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
AdaptiveAdaptiveto uncertainty and change
Agents are goal directedand act on theirown performing
tasks on your behalf
Agents coordinate and negotiate to achieve
common goals
Agents moveto where they
are needed
AutonomousAutonomousproactive
MobileMobile InteroperateInteroperate
Agents interoperatewith humans, other, legacy systems, and information sources
Agents dynamically adaptto and learn abouttheir environment
CooperativeCooperativeself-organizing
delegation
socialpersonality
socialpersonality
Characteristics of Agents
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Agents + the Global Grid
Server
Server
D ataService
D ataService
Server
Server
D ataService
D ataService
AA
A
A
A
AA
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
AA
A
A
A
AA
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
A
AA
Server
Server
ComponentLibrary
ComponentLibrary
Agent Grid - System Concept View
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
agent properties & kinds• communication
capability• computation capability• by role in system
• information agent• data sources
• interface agent• NL• fisheye view
• task agent• web agent• middleware agent
• mobile agent, itinerary• social, personality,
motivation, forgetting• intelligent agent
distributionmessaging svcs*agent life cycle* - start, stop,
checkpoint, name service**event monitoringleasing, compensationcatalog services*, registry/repository* register*, offer/accept/decline publish*, subscribe* trading*, matchmaking, advertising*, negotiating*, brokering*, yellow pages*security** authenticate* encrypt access control lists* firewall* CIA model agent suspectstransactionspersistence*query, profile (of metadata)*data fusionreplication* groups multicast(scarce) resource mgmt*,
allocate*, deallocate*, monitor*,
local, global optimization, load balancing*, negotiation for resources*
schedulingtime, geo-locationrules, constraintsplanning*property listversioning, config
Agent Ontology View (aka Functional/Compositional View)
speech acts*: ACL* - KQML, FIPA ACL, OAA ICL
planning*• reactive*• goal interactions*• discrete vs continuous*• constraints• iterative, revision• workflow
systemicgrid features
common services
AGENT SYSTEM• single vs. multi-agentAGENT SYSTEM• single vs. multi-agent
ensembles• # of agents*• teams, peers,
contracting,• org. responsibility• roles, capabilities,• mutual beliefs• hierarchy*• conversational
policies*
scalability*
policy*, management• resource dial
survivability
evolvability
reliabile*
licensing & cost
QoS*• accuracy• priorities
GRID
time-constrained*
control*, coordination*,multi-agent synchronization• cooperation, competition
adaptation, evolution*via market model, ...
federates
infrastructureprimitives• reflection• serialization• threads• interceptors• proxies• filters• multicast • wrappers
• legacy sys• data sources
ONTOLOGY**• ontolingua, OKBC• metadata representations
• interests, locations, availability, capability, price/cost
• XML and web object models
I*3BADDAICE
IA
EDCS
Quorum
OMGJTFJini
ALP, HLA, IA
Architecture Principle: separation of concernsdeconstructionist view - what can you take away
and still have an agent system
secure*, trust
societies• closed vs. open,
communities of interest
learning• by example• ...
mobility**
heterogeneous*• computing environ. • agent systems• ACLs• content languages• ontologies• policies• services• open world
assumption
autonomousdecentralized*
* = Architecture WG in Pittsburg* = Control WG in Pittsburg* = Interoperability WG in Pittsburgred = Sun Jini green = other DARPA programs
content languages• KIF, FOL, IDL,
RDF
missing• views• MOP
More common services
instrumenting, loggingcachingqueuingrouting, reroutingpedigree, drill downtranslation*...
DDB
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Information Access Framework• heterogeneous data sources and domain object models
• properties: • LAN or WAN at known location or dynamically available
• relational • Oracle, Sybase, Informix, ODBC, JDBC
• OODB • information retrieval • simulators • geographical informaiton systems • semi structured sources
• html, xml , other formatted sources, image • information integration services
• data source wrappers • ifilter, subscribe, notify, monitor, push, pull
• persistence • replication • caching • query decomposition
• multi tier queries - get info from one source to complete query • source discovery
• trader, brokering, yellow pages, matchmaking • source selection • transformation, translation services, semantic integration and transformation, includes• unit conversion • domain and ontology services
• term translation , correlation services, name/place • query translation (e.g., from OQL to SQL )• fusing • stream • reflection
• control • properties
• binding time ... • indexing • working in parallel • iterative query reformulaiton • change propagation
• if data sources change (alternate source) • if query changes
• context of query • statically • dynamically - specified in plan, case-based reasoning, workflow
• metrics • operation effectiveness - info quality, timliness and cost of retrieval • breadth of coverage - completeness, data source complexity • maintenance or evolution over time
• cost in labor hours
• metadata properties • operations covered
• query only vs update too • data access systemic properties
• scaleable • plug and play, open, component-based • transparency of data location, access langauge, and protocol
• user queries • static set vs dyanamic and frequently changing based on user task and need
• distributed • all local to user machine, distributed on LAN, on WAN
• how homogeneous is content • uniform across all sources • unique per source • overlapping sources • partially redundant w inconsistencies • incomplete
• homogeneity of information sources • all in same query language • syntatic differences • multiple kinds
• source size - # of entity types • 10, 50, >50
• semantic impedence w user • no vs all query term translation
• source responsiveness • quick (<10 sec; medium - up to 60 sec; slow - <3 min; very slow - <3 min; batch• overnite; unreliable
• cost • availability, permission, quality, quantity, capabilities, type, • synchrony
• synchronous query and response • asynchronous • interuptable
• desired response control • all answers at once • client controls • server controls • top N answers
• requence of data source changes • never, seldom (<1/yr); often >1/mo; continuous - real-time feed
• frequency of user query changes • never, seldom (<1/yr); often >1/mo
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Relevant Theories View
• speech acts, conversations/dialogs• ontologies• game theory• economic markets• patterns and protocols• planning & case-based reasoning• learns• KBMS• OO middleware service architectures (OMA/ORB)• Web architectures• distributed AI • workflow• dynamic DBMS• simulation• architecture description languages• network management• QoS• ...
* = Architecture WG in Pittsburg
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Grid Federation View
coABS gridBorg collectiveALP clusterHLA federationDDB geolocationIA enclaveswarmdomaincontrol regimesmart spaceJini
• enter and leave• proxies• services• policies
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
OMG
ALP
I*3/BADD/AICE
HLA
DCOM
FIPA
W3C/Web
Jini
Related Technology/Community View
Some relevant technologies and communities
HPKB
… we don’t want to invent yet another architectureso the architecture views must not just concatenate to each other.
HTTP-NG
DDB
digital libraries
Quorum
WfMC
ODP
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Agent Architecture Issues
• What are agents? - code and data packets that are autonomous, adaptive, cooperative, mobile, interoperable … We want all these properties in future agent-based systems. We need experience building systems with these properties.
• Pervasiveness - How do we insure that the architecture stays lite-weight for wide-spread adoption. • Embracing heterogeneity - We must piggyback agent systems on already pervasive infrastructure like ORBs, the
Web, email, and DBMS systems. We must identify the specific kinds of heterogeneity we want agent system architectures to support.
• Separation of concerns• agent-agent separation - can agents access each other’s state directly• agent-service separation - do agents implement the long list of services that the grid provides or is that done via
underlying component-based middleware? • grid-agent separation - agents are autonomous but they cooperate and compete for resources within the
software grid. The grid provides some global systemic properties and some basic shared services. Is there an explicit grid or is it implicit in the way agents interact with each other? Are some “services” (like planning) optionally distributed into agents or are they available from the grid’s planing service? Can new services be autoloaded into a grid that does not have them?
• Semantic interoperability, ontology - do ontologies scale? How do they extend class libraries?• Licensing - Agents, data sources, and component software need an economic model so broad communities can get
value from them. A model of licensing might be critical to success in the large.• Agent communication language (ACL) - Is the ACL compositional and extensible so one can define new speech acts
from existing ones? How many speech acts is enough? 20 or 5000?• Control points - where are the control points where different control algorithms might be substituted into the
architecture• Grid federation issues - How are software grids federated - flat versus hierarchical models? If different grids contain
different policy choices or different services, how does that affect agents communicating across grid boundaries? Can we add new services and -ilities to a grid once it is deployed? how transparent is addition or subtraction of services and ilities
• Coordination - Insure Agent Reference Architecture augments DARPA ISO ATAIS architecture. Provide template for next generation unified OMG, FIPA, and W3C agent standards. Insure that reference implementations (toolkits) exist and are widely available.
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
BACKUP
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Purpose of this presentation• to provide a number of views of a generic Agent Reference Architecture
What is a Reference Architecture• its a meta-architectural blueprint for a family of concrete architectures that may appear in implemented
systems, providing a collection of the component parts of the architecture, how they can fit together, and any constraints on how they fit. A litmus test for a good reference architecture is that it covers actual systems and provides a way to reason about missing pieces, subarchitectures that make sense, interdependencies of parts, and how the architecture relates to other nearby architectures.
What should an Agent Reference Architecture do?• help people understand the scope and value-added of agent systems so they can realize their potential more
quickly (agents for the masses)• explain the principle components of Agent Systems and their interactions• explain how agent architecures solve DoD problems• explain how agent systems complement OMA, HLA, Web, DBMS, and other important system architectures,
also including AITS/NGII/NGA• identify missing components• identify what parts of the architecture already exist in COTS and GOTS, what parts are already prototyped,
and what parts are still needed. Map the coABS investment and what industry will do.• identify research issues (e.g., agent control, agent interoperability)• explain how to scale agent systems; also how to insure systemic properties of agent systems• identify candidate standards and a roadmap for adoption working with industry relevant consensus bodies
Status• this is a first draft and only covers some of the areas above. Textual notes augment this .ppt presentation.
Towards an Agent Reference Architecture
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Architecturecodify design of agent architecture,
esp. grid properties and serviceswhat it means to be agent-ready
Interoperabilityallow many kinds of agent
systems to interoperate naming, ACL, KIF, ontology
conversation policies, federation
Controlsmooth grid policy mgmt
how agent groups coordinateplanning, teams
Challenge ProblemDoD Domain: NEO Non-combatant evacuation order
quick insertion of temporary forcelots of uncertaintymost prevalent op
DARPA coABS Working Groups
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
level 3: participant level
• user interface technologies
• domain entities like humans and simulated tanks
level 2: common apps -
level 1: control services -
level 0: network and connectivity -
By Level in System *
* = used in 8/20 coABS chairs telecon
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
CONCEPT ORGANIZATIONALMODELS AND
PATTERNS
AGENTCOMMUNICATION
LANGUAGE
ONTOLOGY ANDKNOWLEDGE
REPRESENTATIONSYSTEMS
STANDARDSACTIVITIES
INFRA-STRUCTURE
DISTRIBUTEDPROCESSING
APPLICATIONAREAS
Autonomous Broker ARCOL CYC Agent Interop Auditing ATP Critics
Benevolence Active Object FIPA97 ACL GFP / OKBC FIPA Authorization CORBA Commerce
Collaborative Adapter KQML GKB MAF Broker DCOM Design Eng
Coordination Contract-Net KQML97 JOE Collaboration HTTP Discovery
Learning Economy KQML-LITE KADS I+II ConfigurationMngmt
IIOP Eager Assistant
Mobile Federation KIF Debugging JAVA/RMI Filters
Pro-active Mediator K-ONTOLOGIES Human AgentInteraction
KTP Guides
Rationality Negotiator LOOM Life Cycle OTP InformationMediator
Reactivity Reasoner ONTOLINGUA Location{Geo/Logical}
RPC KnowledgeMining
Social Societies ONTOSAURUS Naming/Directory
KnowledgeMngmt
Veracity PIF Ontology Memory Aids
PSL Persistence NetworkManagement
SHADE Place ResourceTranslation
SHELLEY Resource Mng SituationMonitoring
RDF Routing Workflow
SecurityTime
TransactionPaymentFigure 1. Software Agent Systems Framework
(from Alan Piszcz, MITRE)
Other Architecture Views
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Agent
Agent Communication Channel (ACC)
AgentTrigger
Services(ATS)
AgentPersistence
Service(APS)
AgentCommunication
Language(ACL)
Application/MissionSoftware
AgentOntologyService(AOS)
AgentWrapper
(AW)
Agent
AgentCommunication
Language(ACL)
MappingProtocol
(HTTP,ORB)
RDBMS
WWWServer
FIPA Specification
Application Specific Software
Non-FIPA service
DirectoryFacilitator
(DF)
AgentManagement
System(AMS)
AgentResource
Broker(ARB)
Agent Based DynamicVirtual Private Network
Provisioning
PersonalCommunication
Agent(PCA)
ServiceProvider
Agent(SPA)
NetworkProvider
Agent(NPA)
Figure 2. Agent Platform Reference Architecture
(from Alan Piszcz, MITRE)
Other Architecture Views
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Other Architectural Views
Views Missing from this presentation
• review and refine all mapping• identify additional requirements and map these to the Agent Reference Architecture • identify additional issues and resolve issues• recurse on sub-reference models for services and capabilities -or- point to existing
specifications from FIPA, OMG, or the agent community• identify mappings from the Agent Reference Architecture to OMG OMA, HLA, etc. to
see the value added• a mapping to implementations available as COTS or GOTS • a mapping of coABS projects and components to other agent reference architecture views• a priority view of components needed first, second, … by potential providers• a roadmap for standards to complement FIPA’s and OMG’s (work through these groups)
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Architecture Issues
• requirements - from the point of view of DoD applications, what do we expect from agent technology. There are many answers:
• replace stovepipe systems with more reliable, scalable, survivable, evolvable, adaptable systems. Make it much easier to snap together future systems to meet flexible needs in uncertain environments
• reduce complexity - simplify agent technology so it is useful to the masses• solve data blizzard, information starvation problemsWe need to write these down and then provide mappings to agent architecture capabilities that make these
domain capabilities possible.• avoid yet-another-architecture - the agent reference architecture cannot be a wholly different architecture than
near-by relatives. It should overlay or augment architectures like ORBs, Web, HLA, Jini, ODP, Quorum, AICE, ALP. Or it may be that it provides local agent architectures that can interoperate.
• what are agents? - thin, thick, smart, dump, mobile, stationary, chatty, objects that use ACLs to communicate, … We must tease these (possibly orthogonal) properties apart and understand what our technology is adding to the picture. Especially if we want a large body of industry and DoD to adopt this next generation technology. Related:
• criterial characteristics, minimal, maximal, lite or heavy weight - Are there criterial properties of agent based systems? is there any minimal or maximal set of properties that we can agree on for something to be an agent-based system. Is it based on technical mechanisms (e.g., makes use of an ACL) or just any system with (some of) these properties: autonomy, adaptive, cooperative, mobile, interoperable. How can we keep the architecture lite weight and still accommodate all the services?
• grid-agent separation - agents are autonomous but they cooperate and compete in some context which we are terming the grid. The grid provides some global systemic properties and some basic shared services.
• are agents really autonomous (including being independent of the grid)?• is there an explicit grid or is it implicit in the way agents interact with each other?• are some “services” (like planning) optionally distributed into agents or are they available from the grid’s
planing service. Does this matter?• is there a maximal or minimal (lite-weight) grid and what happens if agents interoperate that come from
differently configured grids?• do agents ask other agents for their properties and grid capabilties• can new services be autoloaded into a grid that does not have them?
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
• agent-agent separation - can agents access each other’s state directly• agent-service separation - how are agents and services related? For instance, do agents implement the long list of
services that the grid provides or is that underlying component software? Does each agent contain a planner or is a planning service global to a collection of services? It might be a wave-particle distinction.
• embracing heterogeneity - it is clear we must do this if agents will live in internet settings. But we also cannot expect systems to work with complete heterogeneity. The Web works partly because widespread agreement on HTTP, HTML, XML, .. and DBMSs work because of SQL and related standards. So we must identify the specific kinds of heterogeneity we want agent system architectures to support. It is not enough to say we are embracing heterogeneity.
• semantic interoperability, ontology - how far beyond the standard OO class model or DBMS schema do ontologies go; do they scale (most ontologies are pretty narrow), specifically which interoperability problems are solved
• licensing - like many grid services, licensing’s degenerate form is no licensing. But agents and component software cannot succeed without an economic model that makes broad communities get value from them. One way to do this is via licensing space on your machine, capabilities and services, data sources, … A model of licensing might be critical for coABS to succeed in the large.
• Agent Communication Language (ACL)• is the ACL compositional and extensible so one can define new speech acts from existing ones?• How many speech acts is enough? 20 or 5000?
• control points - where are the control points where different control algorithms might be substituted into the architecture
• grid federation issues • how are grids federated - flat model, hierarchical• if different grids contain different policy choices or different services, how does that affect agents communicating
across grid boundaries?• can we add new services and -ilities to a grid once it is deployed? how transparent is addition or subtraction of
services and ilities
Architecture Issues
There are many other issues!They are worth listing.
Object Services and Consulting, Inc.
Craig Thompson 972-379-3320 August 31, 1998 © Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.© Copyright 1998 Object Services and Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved.
Challenges
Challenges for DARPA/ISO Next Generation Architecture • What can coABS build on from other DARPA programs? Are reference architectures,
service specs, common schema, data sources, reference implementations readily available in the NGA repository for plug-and-play? How about implementation guidance?
• What is our plan to transfer DARPA/ISO NGA architecture, specs, and implementations inside DARPA and outside to industry via standards and products?
• How do we insure lite-weight meta architectures that are still evolvable?
Challenges for coABS• Risks: silver bullet, overpromising, pin-down coABS unique contribution, do planning
techniques scale for Internet and programming language communities?• Define agent functions, keep complexity manageable for the programmer in the street.
Insure the systems are implementable via prototyping; share toolkits where possible; build on COTS and GOTS where possible.
• Coordinate with DDB, AICE, and Quorum on design of an open decentralized global grid. Borrow and unify ideas of clusters, federates, enclaves from OMG, ALP, HLA, IA, Jini. Unify agent architecture with HLA, Web, ORB, workflow, ...
• Insure coABS reference architecture provides template for next generation unified OMG, FIPA, and W3C standards and that reference implementations (toolkits) exist and are widely available.
• How do we foster an economy of componentized agent software?• micro licensing component software and leasing resources across the network • crossing organizational boundaries so the net is the DBMS, the net is the computer • how to populate space with 100,000 advertisements?