Web services-based collaborative system for distributed engineering Adam Pawlak Paweł Fraś Piotr Penkala * Silesian University of Technology Inst. of Electronics,

Web services-based collaborative system

for distributed engineering

Adam PawlakPaweł Fraś

Piotr Penkala *

Silesian University of Technology Inst. of Electronics, Collaborative Engineering

GroupGliwice, Poland

•also Evatronix SA

PRO-VE'089th IFIP Working Conference on Virtual Enterprises

Poznań, Poland, 8-10.09.2008

PRO-VE’08, Poznań, 8-10.09.2008 A. Pawlak SUT, Poland -2- PRO-VE’08, Poznań, 8-10.09.2008 A. Pawlak SUT, Poland -2-

Outline• Collaborative engineering for distributed

product development • Challenges in collaborative design• MAPPER project objectives and approach• MAPPER collaborative infrastructure• Requirements for distributed tool

integration• TRMS - Tool Registration and Management

Services• New TRMS architecture• Deployment of TRMS• Conclusions


is an innovative method for product development which integrates widely distributed engineers for virtual collaboration.[Cutkosky, MADEFAST, Communicat. of the ACM, Sept. 1996]

shared eng. datareal-time communicat.interactivity

Objective: distributed design of the optical seeker

Collaborative engineering


Why collaborative engineering in electronics

• Time to market vs design complexity is since „ever” the most significant factor for new product creation

• Thus, increase of design productivity is one of the major objectives within the SoC domain resolved by:

Structured design methodology with IP design reuse Designing on higher levels of design abstraction

• Collaborative design is another approach allowing to increase design productivity of electronic systems with:

Easy and close collaboration of widely distributed engineers being experts in different domains and in different design flow phases

Controlled remote access to expensive design tools, etc.


Infineon’s pan-European distribution

Courtesy:Dr. Matthias Bauer, Infineon Technologies


Our motivation for collaborative designSupporting integration of SMEs into complex design inter-organisational workflows


Selected Challenges in Collaborative Engineering

Establishment of an efficient collaborative engineering environment requires solving at least the following problems:

• Collaboration with organisations protected behind firewalls• Data format conformity, etc.

• Easy tool integration with standard support for:– Tool description– Design task description– Workflow description

• Secure design data transfer

•Support for human actors – engineers collaborative actions – Appropriate collaborative workspaces– Advanced synchronous and asynchronous communication


SMEs collaboration perspective

• In this work we take an SME perspective for companies distributed engineering collaboration towards a common product.


TRMS - Secure integration of distributed tools

• Secure integration of distributed design tools was the reserch goal of the Collaborative Engineering group at SUT since ~2000

• Architecture of TRMSv1 was the first result achieved withing the EU project ECOLLEG


TRMS operation protocol:

a: tool registers with profile

b: user asks for tool with constraintsc: registry checks constraints and returns profiled: user lunches tool with input and outpute: tool fetches input and processes outputf: destination fetches output

Animation

l

E-COLLEG Tool Registration and Management Services


MAPPER context

• We have addressed our didributed colaborative design problem in the context of the EU project MAPPER

• MAPPER - Model-based Adaptive Product and Process EngineeringFP6-2004-IST-NMP-2 Project No 016527

09.2005-02.2008http://mapper.eu.org


Problem statement for MAPPERThe core problems in the area of faster and more

flexible design and manufacturing (agile engineering) concern:

– Quick and inexpensive formation of networked manufacturing organisations;

– Achieving concurrency in all operations; – Bridging the gaps between heterogeneous knowledge,

processes, systems, services, and ways of working;– Support rapid reconfiguration of required processes

and products to accommodate diverse and changing needs and opportunities;

– New, cross-partner knowledge which continuously created and must be shared, executed on and managed.


Challenges in collaborative design

• Concurrency in all operations, increasing design efficiency and decreasing time-to-market.

• Quick and inexpensive formation of networked design organisations.

• Processes and products should be rapidly reconfigured to accommodate diverse and changing needs and opportunities.

• Change management across the entire design chain requires coordination of individual changes and support for iterative adjustments. Collaborative product, process and service engineering must thus be managed and performed across networked organisations.

• Integration of tools of remote groups of engineers with adequate for industry solutions for: security, distributed inter-organization workflows, and remote administration of users and tools.


The Vision of MAPPER

In 2015, agile design and manufacturing companies can inexpensively form collaborative networks and quickly adapt to market demands.

Open, visual, holistic, reconfigurablecollaboration platform

Interoperability among enterprises’

software and services

SME NEnterprise 1

Interaction andintegration

between humanand technical

resources

Fast, flexibleand inexpensive

deployablesolutions

Software systems of company 1

Software systems of company N

Collaboration between enterprises, integration of products, processes

and services

Open, visual, holistic, reconfigurablecollaboration platform

Interoperability among enterprises’

software and services

SME NEnterprise 1

Interaction andintegration

between humanand technical

resources

Fast, flexibleand inexpensive

deployablesolutions

Software systems of company 1

Software systems of company N

Collaboration between enterprises, integration of products, processes

and services


Scientific and technological objectivesof MAPPERO1: Reconfigurable visual enterprise models of products,

processes and other enterprise aspects;

O2: Participative engineering methodologies, enabling joint product and process design, interdisciplinary and inter-organisational collaboration throughout multiple product life-cycles;

O3: Customisable work environments for different stakeholders, roles and tasks;

O4: Secure collaboration platform, enabling enterprises to access each others engineering tools and product data in an open, yet secure manner;

O5: To develop and assess three industrial use-cases, and to validate the overall MAPPER approach:- automotive industry (Fiat) and automotive components supplier

(Kongsberg Automotive, SWE, N, PL)- electronics industry (IP components supplier, Evatronix, PL)


MAPPER approach

Standard-based Interoperability Framework

Customisable work

environments

Participative methodology

Reconfigurable models

Secure service integration platform

Integrate enterprise modelling, human-centred methodologies, collaborative customisation, and secure, distributed tool invocation, into an open, visual, holistic, and reconfigurable collaboration platform


Participative engineering methodology

Standard-based Interoperability Framework(e.g. ATHENA)

Customisable work

environments

Reconfigurable POPS* models




Customisable work

environments




• A method of engineering involving personnel from several areas, possessing different knowledge and skills, responsible for performing various roles in an engineering process.

• This methodology aims at integrating product, process and service engineering and have the components:– Networked manufacturing enterprise modelling– Formation and operation of sustainable collaboration– Inter-organisational learning– Multi-project portfolio management



Customisable work

environments





Customisable work

environments




• Active knowledge modelling– An approach used to construct live networked

manufacturing enterprise models.

– AKMs describe the relevant resources, aspects, views, methods and rules to externalise and facilitate knowledge-driven, adaptive collaboration and learning.

Reconfigurable models

• Visual modelling and visual scenes.– Visual modelling as a more powerful representation means for

sense making: in using systems and in modifying systems.


AKM model of a distributed collaborative design realised by two SMEs




Customisable work

environments





Customisable work

environments




• Basic services needed for collaborative enterprise modelling and execution– Modelling services– Model execution services– Collaboration services– Secure tool integration services

Secure services-based collaboration platform that enables companies to access shared engineering tools and data on products in a user and secure collaboration friendly way is the goal.


Customizable work environments





Customisable work

environments





Customisable work

environments

• User interfaces integrating all the software and information needed to perform a particular task

• Packaging functionality according to the user needs and expectations

• Customisation and contextualisation

• Flexible work environments adaptable for various partners, roles and tasks

• The collaborative platform should enable companies offering (e.g. design) solutions and their customers to commonly adapt and configure their work environment


MAPPER collaboration infrastructure


Layers of Services on Top of AKM MAPPER approach towards CWE -2-


Requirements from MAPPER

• AKM - Active Knowledge Model paradigm• Services context from MAPPER• Integration within MAPPER collaborative

platform• Profound requirements engineering process• SourceS of requirements:

– Evatronix and advICo engineers - Reflections from the SUT R&D team- Ethnografic fields studies at companies sites done

by social sciences experts


Requirements modelling as AKM

• Requirements from Evatronix modelling in METIS

• Social scientists were performing ethnographic field studies. Observations and conclusions were assembled in reports that were provided as additional requirements to research & technology teams working on the collaboration infrastructure


TRMS 1TRMS 1E-Colleg resultE-Colleg resultapplicationapplicationANTS transport mechanismANTS transport mechanismpartial firewall crossingpartial firewall crossing

TRMS 1.1TRMS 1.1initial version for MAPPERinitial version for MAPPERapplicationapplicationown transport mechanismown transport mechanismno firewall crossingno firewall crossing

TRMS 1.2TRMS 1.2developed in MAPPERdeveloped in MAPPERappletappletown transport mechanismown transport mechanismservice-based functionalityservice-based functionality

TRMS 2TRMS 2new architecturenew architectureapplicationapplicationhttp/https transport mechanismhttp/https transport mechanismssfirewall crossingfirewall crossing

20032003

20052005

20062006

20072007

TRMS development path


TRMS 2.0 architecture


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GTLS Global Tool Lookup Service

• Responsible for management of elements of the environment and security policy

• GTLS is the only TRMS component accessible from the Internet

• Communication broker Client – Tool InvokerGTLS plays a role of a broker and a temporary repository in a communication between a Client Application and Tool Servers.

• GTLS cooperates with SQL data baseDB contains information on users and their privileges, TSs, registered tools, and workflows.

• (Design) data management• Implemented as a set of Web Services (Apache

AXIS).


GTLS (main) web services

AdministrationAdministration services are responsible for registration and modification of data on users and their privileges, elements of the system, as well as, information on accessible tools and machines that make them available.

User and Server AuthenticationUpon user/designer logs in, a new session is created and a user receives its key. Tool Servers are authenticated automatically upon their invocation.

Task Management Each tool that is expected to be accessible over the network needs to be registered and placed in the task queue. Registration involves determination of necessary data for tool invocation.

Workflow ManagementA workflow constitutes a set of tasks that are in the task queue. Current implementation supports sequential workflows.


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Tool invoker

• Responsible for: – Fetching of input data– Program invocation– Dispatching of console messages– Sending of results

• Constant connection with GTLS isn’t required


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Client application

• Two versions: Tiny vs. Fat Client (adminstrator)• Constant connection with GTLS isn’t required

(one may invoke a design task and switch of the client application)


TRMS 2.0 new functionality versus versions 1.x

• Support for work in the networks with NAT and firewalls Communication is always initiated by either tool servers or client applications. Tool server (tool invoker) polls for a job to do.

• Support for long jobsClient app can be switched off during the job execution on a tool server.Actual job status and output results are available during the consecutive log-in.

• Support for a sequential workflowsNext task is executed under the control of GTLS after the previous one is over.

• Access to console output messages of the invoked tool

• A number of users can access and control the execution of a task


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Used technologies

• Java SE 6

• Apache Tomcat 5.5 (lub 6)

• Apache AXIS 1.3 (lub 2)

• Hibernate

• HSQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL)

• appframework, jdesktop


TRMS 2.0 achievements (technology and architecture)• New TRMS architecture is based on Web services thus

supporting (MAPPER) integration with other Collaborative Working Environmnts

• Both applet and application versions are available• Secure transmission channel, optional

encoding using keys• Transfer based on standard https or http protocols• Deployed in MAPPER pilots 2 and 3

- (intra-) and inter-company distributed tool integration


TRMS 2.0plans

• Extend functionality and user interface (e.g., user awareness, event notification service)

• Development of a more advanced workflow management system


USB PHY design challenges in MAPPER

– Experts were needed from two different designers’ worlds: analogue and digital

– The design environment is distributed (2 companies, 3 locations)

– Problems with interoperability of current design tools (different domains, different file formats)

TRMS deployment


Evatronix and advICo workflows

Component specification

Development

Verification

Product preparation

Each company has well defined own design flow

advICo Design Flow


Distributed design and verification between advICo and Evatronix

advICo

Design

Flow

Evatronix

Design

Flow

Analog and Digital Block integration

Integration of USB PHY digital and analogue design flows was a problem


Active Knowledge Model of common USB PHY design flow


Pilot 3 USB-OTG-PHY design coverage

Analog block Digital block

High SpeedAnalogFront End

HS Receiver

HS Transmitter

Full SpeedAnalogFront End

FS Receiver

FS Transmitter

High SpeedControl Logic

HS Receive logic

HS Transmit logic

Full SpeedControl Logic

FS Receive logic

FS Transmit logic

USB PHY design

Integration &Verification of whole USB PHY design was a scope of the Pilot 3


Pilot 3 infrastructure


Pilot 3 – step1 – Digital design + tests


Pilot 3 – step 1


Pilot 3 – step 2 – Integration of both PHY parts


Pilot 3 – step 2


Pilot 3 – step 2

Digital waveform view


Pilot 3 – step 2Analog waveform view


Pilot 3 – step 3


Pilot 3 – step 3


Pilot 3 – step 4


Pilot 3 – step 4


CURE interface


CVW interface


Distributed design and verification of USB PHY design at advICo and Evatronix

Conclusions feedback from companies

• METIS – models of each company design process allow to develop the best common design process for this special (from each company perspective) USB PHY design

• CURE – As this interface didn’t require any additional effort from end users to setup it, and it can be used almost everywhere where the Internet access is available.

• TRMS – possibility of invoking it just from web browser, implemented security, remote invocation of different design tools. All these features support automatisation of design processes. TRMS helped Evatronix/advICo to use design tools more efficiently. Finally, it accelerated designers’ work


Conclusions The TRMS architecture based on web services has the

following advantages: • Enables easier integration with other collaborative environments,• GTLS as a communication broker enables use of tools that are

installed in local networks on machines that are not visible from outside,

• The new architecture supports also tools that require long computation times,

• The environment is robust enough for transient problems in accessing the network,

• It reduces demand for a broad bandwidth in accessing the network, and speeds up the overall the environment,

• The use of the standard HTTPS protocol enables control of the network traffic.

Further R&D related to TRMS includes enhanced workflow management system and improved support for engineering teamwork with both synchronous and asynchronous collaboration.


Acknowledgements

Presented work has been commenced within projects:– E-COLLEG (IST-1999-11746), as well as – VOSTER (IST-2001-32031), as well as

continued in the - MAPPER project (FP6-2004-IST-NMP-2 016527)

Wojtek Sakowski and Szymon Grzybek from Evatronix.

MAPPER partners are acknowledged for their R&D efforts in respect to the presented collaborative infrastructure.– Dr. Havard Jorgensen (AKM) Oslo, Norway)– Svein G. Johnsen, SINTEF, Oslo (Norway)– Dr. Frank Lillehagen (AKM, Oslo, Norway) – Prof. Kurt Sandkuhl, Jönköping University, Jönköping (Sweden) – Dr. Till Schümmer, FernUniversität Hagen, Hagen (Germany)


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Available books

CCE’07, KrakówPreliminary Workshop materials

CCE’06, Prague

AITPL cluster bookwith MAPPER contribution Book published by

GI in Lecture Notes in Informatics


More information on MAPPER

Joint Call 2 : FP6-2004-IST-NMP-2 (October 14 2004)Topic: IST-NMP-1 : Integrating Technologies for the Fast and Flexible Manufacturing Enterprise

Run: 2006.09 – 2008.02 (30 months)

http://mapper.eu.org comprises:

• TRMS demo• TRMS documentation• MAPPER project papers and demonstrations

Thank you for your attention!

Documents

Web services-based collaborative system for distributed engineering Adam Pawlak Paweł Fraś Piotr Penkala * Silesian University of Technology Inst. of Electronics,