Toward a Formal Semantics for Autonomic Components

TL;DR

This paper develops a formal semantics using hypergraph rewriting to model the dynamic evolution and management of autonomic, component-based applications, aiming to improve abstraction and precision in describing adaptation operations.

Contribution

It introduces a formal hypergraph rewriting semantics for autonomic components, enabling precise modeling of their dynamic adaptation and management processes.

Findings

Provides a formal semantics for autonomic component management

Facilitates higher-level abstraction of management code

Models dynamic evolution of service-oriented architectures

Abstract

Autonomic management can improve the QoS provided by parallel/ distributed applications. Within the CoreGRID Component Model, the autonomic management is tailored to the automatic - monitoring-driven - alteration of the component assembly and, therefore, is defined as the effect of (distributed) management code. This work yields a semantics based on hypergraph rewriting suitable to model the dynamic evolution and non-functional aspects of Service Oriented Architectures and component-based autonomic applications. In this regard, our main goal is to provide a formal description of adaptation operations that are typically only informally specified. We contend that our approach makes easier to raise the level of abstraction of management code in autonomic and adaptive applications.