Self-Adaptive Software Architecture for Emergency Collaboration - Essay Sample

Introduction

The current research proposes designing a self-adaptive software architecture that guarantees a greater and better availability of services and therefore enables collaboration between members of a work team, even in areas where there is no coverage or access to the Internet as a result of natural disasters. The proposed architecture can be especially useful in emergencies, in which guaranteeing collaboration is of special relevance to rescue teams after a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

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The architecture will be designed to offer services in a dynamic and as decentralized way as possible, operating even on ad hoc mobile networks (or MANETs), which means that it does not depend on an external communication infrastructure, such as centralized access points or Internet connection, but mobile devices themselves are the only actors involved (Calinescu, Gerasimou, Johnson, & Paterson, 2017). These act as senders, recipients, and communication links. In this way, mobiles receive and send data within a collaborative network that can be shaped and moved to where users require at all times.

The flexibility and dynamism of MANET networks present new challenges in the design of distributed software systems. For example, due to the mobility of users, the connections between their devices frequently change, giving rise to dynamic and unstable network topologies. The proposed architecture will improve the applicability of ad hoc networks by addressing and effectively managing these challenges. The proposed design will solve the common problems of MANET networks thanks to the design of a self-adaptive architecture, based on replication and self-configuration techniques, supporting the dynamic deployment of services. That is, the different devices that make up the network are automatically relieved from each other to keep the services and resources available and ensure the collaboration and communication of the members of the network permanently.

This architecture works in a distributed/decentralized manner, which favors that no device is essential for the proper functioning of the self-adaptation process. Therefore, this meets the current trend towards the design and implementation of systems based on new computing models such as Mobile Cloud Computing, Edge, and Fog Computing, with the primary objective of reducing message traffic on the Internet (Zhao et al., 2015). If any of the devices in the ad hoc network disconnects from that network, the rest will take over to continue executing the service. This avoids the interruption of the workflow of team members. Besides, when the choice of the device used as a server is carried out, its properties are taken into account, for example, one can choose as a new server that terminal that has more battery or better bandwidth to maximize the attributes of quality of service (Guerrero-Contreras, Garrido, Balderas-Diaz, & Rodriguez-Dominguez, 2016). By operating the network devices as transmitters, recipients and communication links within the ad hoc network, and working in a self-adaptive manner, the continuity of the mobile services that emergency equipment on the ground must use, which are used they are of vital importance when the main network is damaged or not accessible.

The fields of application of this solution cover other contexts, generally framed in the field of smart cities and the Internet of Things (tourism, university campuses, intelligent traffic systems, or driver support). Due to the increasing number of smart devices that can be found in daily lives, these scenarios are becoming increasingly important, generating situations in which several users can collaborate and benefit from the exchange of local information.

There are several reasons why the proposed design will be vital. First, the availability of communication, since, although there is no Internet connection, either due to lack of coverage or other reasons, the proposed system allows communication with the closest environment to be maintained. Secondly, the security and speed of the connections thanks to direct communication between nearby devices, which makes the information, not pass through external or very remote servers, increasing the speed and hindering the possibilities of interception and loss of messages on the Internet. Finally, it is free, not requiring the use of the data rate to share information in the local environment.

References

Calinescu, R., Gerasimou, S., Johnson, K., & Paterson, C. (2017). Using quantitative runtime verification to provide assurance evidence for self-adaptive software. Software Engineering for Self-Adaptive Systems III Assurances, pp. 223-248. Retrieved from http://prismmodelchecker.org/papers/cacm-runtime.pdf

Guerrero-Contreras, G., Garrido, J. L., Balderas-Diaz, S., & Rodriguez-Dominguez, C. (2016). A context-aware architecture supporting service availability in mobile cloud computing. IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, 10(6), 956-968. https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1109%2FTSC.2016.2540629

Zhao, Z., Taal, A., Jones, A., Taylor, I., Stankovski, V., Vega, I. G., & de Laat, C. (2015). A software workbench for interactive time-critical and highly self-adaptive cloud applications (SWITCH). In 2015 15th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Grid Computing, pp. 1181-1184. Retrieved from http://www.switchproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/uva-7.pdf