Paradigms for Biologically–Inspired Autonomic Networks and Services (original) (raw)

Interdisciplinary issues for the management of next generation autonomic wireless systems: nature-inspired techniques and organic computing

International Journal of Mobile Network Design and Innovation, 2007

Next generation communication systems have become a hot research issue in these last few years. For an efficient management of these networks, multidisciplinary knowledge and cooperation between different research fields is important. In particular, the next generation of wireless systems needs to satisfy some self-properties such as self-describing, self-organising, self-managing, self-configuring, self-optimising, self-monitoring, self-adapting and self-healing. In order to provide these features traditional approaches cannot be employed, owing to the computing complexity involved, so new solutions must be considered. The most suitable techniques to solve the above-mentioned issues is certainly organic computing and nature inspired techniques. Therefore, the main goal of our work is to provide a description of the principal characteristics of these new kinds of network and an overview in the various nature-inspired and organic computing techniques such as the neural network, molecular computing, Cellular Automata (CA), Genetic Algorithms (GAs), epidemic propagation strategies and finally, Swarm Intelligence (SI).

Bio-Inspired Approaches for Autonomic Pervasive Computing Systems

2008

In this chapter, we present some of the biologically-inspired approaches, developed within the context of the European project BIONETS for enabling autonomic pervasive computing environments. The set of problems addressed include networking as well as service management issues. The approach pursued is based on the use of evolutionary techniques—properly embedded in the system components—as a means to achieve fully autonomic behaviour.

A Biological Approach to Autonomic Communication Systems

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2006

Among the most important research topics in computer sciences, a primary role is played by design and control of next-generation communication networks (NGCNs). Such networks will be characterized by heterogeneity at all levels, encompassing a large variety of users, media, processes and channels. Another important feature of NGCNs will be the ability to interact with the environment. Various agents will collect information from the surroundings, and, then take appropriate actions in response, either in a centralized or in a distributed fashion. These features will characterize a pervasive computing and communication environment, a challenging scenario for scientists in all computer sciencesrelated research fields. Users will be highly mobile, and will need to access services without relying on a end-to-end connection. These factors will reflect into an increasing network management complexity, that will be approaching the limits of human capability. Consequently, necessary features of NGCNs will be the ability to selfmanage, self-adapt and self-organize. These features may be summarized into one single paradigm: autonomic communication (AC). This suggests that an appealing approach for governing the complexity of NGCNs is to draw inspiration from biology, as in autonomic computing, in order to achieve an efficient and robust communication system. This requires a multi-disciplinary approach to ICT-related research, which in our view can lead to innovative and creative solutions to the challenges related to next generation networks.

D2. 1.1 Paradigms and Foundations of BIONETS research

2007

SUMMARY This document is the fruit of the collection of paradigms and foundations that had been identified as being relevant to the design, analysis and optimization of autonomous wireless networks, in general, and to the Bionets architecture and services, in particular. Although this paradigm collection is the deliverable of SP2. 1, it contains also

NEURON Enabling Autonomicity in Wireless Sensor Networks

Future Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) will be ubiquitous, large-scale networks interconnected with the existing IP infrastructure. Autonomic functionalities have to be designed in order to reduce the complexity of their operation and management, and support the dissemination of knowledge within a WSN. In this paper a novel protocol for energy efficient deployment, clustering and routing in WSNs is proposed that focuses on the incorporation of autonomic functionalities in the existing approaches. The design of the protocol facilitates the design of innovative applications and services that are based on overlay topologies created through cooperation among the sensor nodes.

A Framework for Self-Management of Hybrid Wireless Networks Using Autonomic Computing Principles

3rd Annual Communication Networks and Services Research Conference (CNSR'05)

The dramatic increase in the number of mobile subscribers has put a significant resource and service provisioning strain on current cellular networks in particular in terms of multimedia and high-data rate service provision. Hybrid wireless networks, which is a novel scalable and adaptive wireless network architecture utilizing a mixture of cellular and ad hoc multi-hop routing, facilitates cellular network design with small cell systems without having to wire a large number of base stations into a core network. However, this new network design has drawbacks in terms of routing complexity, radio resource heterogeneity and network infrastructure design growth. Traditional centralised system administration methods become too inflexible to result in an manageable cellular system. A recently introduced concept-Autonomic Computing, based on stimulation from biological systems, may provide a remedy to the state of unmanageability. The Autonomic computing paradigm, recently coined autonomic communications, when applied to communication systems and networks, enables self-management, which is composed of self-protecting, self-healing, self-configuring and selfoptimizing components. This self-management is not necessarily novel as technologies such as neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms and evolutional methods have already been proposed to facilitate limited self-configuration and self-optimization when embedded with cellular and ad hoc networks. However, a structure or framework has been lacking so far. In this paper we propose an architecture for a framework of autonomic computing based on policies for a hybrid wireless network and investigate the merits of each of its functions. 2 Autonomic Computing When overlapping connections are growing, when system dependencies are unclear, and when interacting ap

A biologically-inspired approach to designing wireless sensor networks

European Workshop on Wireless Sensor Networks, 2005

In this paper, we contend that there are significant advantages in treating some classes of sensor networks as biological-like systems-both in structural design characteristics and in operational processes. We show how this design process leads to a sensor network system that is robust to topological changes, is scaleable and self-organising-and has a number of other desirable features. The operating system

Bionets: Bio-inspired networking for pervasive communication environments

2007

Abstract This paper presents BIONETS, which is a novel bio-inspired approach to the design of localized services in pervasive communication/computing environments. Conventional networking approaches are not suitable for such scenarios, where they face three main issues, namely: 1) heterogeneity, 2) scalability, and 3) complexity.

Mapping Ecology to Autonomic Communication Systems

IBM presented (in 2001) the idea of autonomic computing: many different ways of interacting. Self-governing components can simplify configuration, healing, optimization and protection of IT systems (thus hiding complexities to human operators). Today, Autonomic Technology also refers to the self-managing characteristics of resources as such the capacity of hiding completely its complexity to operators and users. Systems make decisions using high-level policies from operators. They will constantly check and optimize their status and automatically adapt themselves to changing conditions. Autonomic technologies may represent promising solutions for the evolution of Future Internet, ICT and Telecommunications. This paper addresses the problem of designing future service frameworks based on autonomic technologies and leveraging bioinspired laws, algorithms and patterns naturally existing in the ecology of living entities. We first define an overall architectural model and then the autonomic abstraction. Next, we study the principles and capabilities of autonomic communication systems based on ecological patterns and propose examples of how to map these laws into the architecture. This study is illustrated with two use cases that can be easily prototyped to test the feasibility of the model.

Autonomic Wireless Sensor Networks : Intelligent Ubiquitous Sensing

2006

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have the potential to radically transform commonly held perceptions of computing applications and usage. From environmental monitoring to assisting the aged in their everyday activities, the WSN concept offers an attractive vision of how computational technologies may positively influence everyday life. Hence there is almost unprecedented interest all technological issues pertinent to WSNs. However, various issues relating to the design, deployment and maintenance of WSNs are still crystallising. In this paper, the case for incorporating autonomic computing principles into the design of WSNs is articulated, in light of acknowledged limitations of the WSN model, resulting in what may be termed Autonomic WSNs.