Building and Implementing Policies in Autonomous and Autonomic Systems Using Macmas. A Case Study Based on a NASA Concept Mission

Abstract

Autonomic Computing, self-management based on high level guidance from humans, is increasingly being accepted as a means forward in designing reliable systems that both hide complexity from the user and control IT management costs. Effectively, AC may be viewed as Policy-Based Self-Management.We look at ways of achieving this, and in particular focus on Agent-Oriented Software Engineering. We propose utilizing MaCMAS, an AOSE methodology, for specifying autonomic and autonomous properties of the system independently, and later, by means of composition of these specifications, guided by a policy specification, construct a specification for the policy and its subsequent deployment. We illustrate this by means of a case study based on a NASA concept mission, and describe future work on a support toolkit.