WO2008082022A1

WO2008082022A1 - Method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily

Info

Publication number: WO2008082022A1
Application number: PCT/KR2007/000087
Authority: WO
Inventors: Weduke Cho; Kyoochan Cho; Soondong Kim; Kwanjong Yoo
Original assignee: Ajou University Industry Cooperation Foundation
Priority date: 2007-01-05
Filing date: 2007-01-05
Publication date: 2008-07-10
Also published as: KR20090000123A

Abstract

A method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily is provided. A method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily according to the present invention comprises discovering a necessary service to achieve a goal among services of various protocols, invocating the service in case the services discovered are only one, and selecting and invocating a most suitable service to achieve the goal among a plurality of services, in case that the services discovered are plural, in a method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily controlling a process of framework adaptively for various situations under ubiquitous computing environment comprising a plurality of services and applications. According to the present invention, the present invention can positively cope with modules to be either modified or added at any time and provide a service by searching a most suitable module to a situation for the request of the application.

Description

METHOD OF CONTROLLING ADAPTIVE PROCESS RECONFIGURING SYSTEM EASILY

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to ubiquitous system, more particularly, to a method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily which adaptively controls the process of framework for various situations under ubiquitous environment including a plurality of services and applications. Background Art

[2] Traditional computing environment is a static environment that users directly use a specific computing device in front of the space on which the specific computing device is putting. Ubiquitous environment is a dynamic and intelligent environment in which all computing devices existing in adjacent spaces cooperate each other for supporting the convenience and jobs of users, even though the users do not recognize the computing devices.

[3] Various kinds of devices, applications on multiple platforms and services cooperate in real time, among themselves in the ubiquitous space generated due to combination of both physical and electronic spaces. These services existing in such an environment are mingled variously, and an information providing method must be decided and adjusted in execution time according to the subject with which a service is provided.

[4] An internal dynamic process refers to having the internal operation flow of a framework adaptively change according to a situation, in order to achieve a goal. Since a result value at the time when a step of the process is terminated makes influences on processing of the next step, it would be adaptive to the ubiquitous environment in which various situations may happen and even to the systems modifying conditions dynamically so as to reflect the dynamically changed conditions in order to achieve the goal.

[5] It would not be easy to consider such diverse changes of the flow and express them in program code at the developing time of the framework. If a change of the internal process flow is caused due to either domain environment or a new service flow after the framework is distributed, it might have a problem in paying higher maintenance expenses of the framework. Disclosure of Invention Technical Solution

[6] The technical task to achieve the present invention provides a method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily in which adaptively reconfigures the process flow of system for various situations under ubiquitous computing environment including a plurality of services and applications.

[7] In order to achieve the technical task above, a method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily according to the present invention may comprise discovering a necessary service to achieve a goal among services of various protocols, invocating the service in case the services discovered are only one, and selecting and invocating a most suitable service to achieve the goal among a plurality of services, in case that the services discovered are plural, in a method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily controlling a process of framework adaptively for various situations under ubiquitous computing environment comprising a plurality of services and applications.

[8] The method of controlling process of a framework may further comprise invocating a Orchestrating-possible service, if there is the Orchestration-possible service after determining whether the Orchestration-possible service exists in case of no service discovered.

[9] The discovering may comprise registering a new supplemented service.

[10] The controlling process of a framework may be implemented by a process flow engine overall reconfiguring the process flow by modifying a process flow of next step due to a result value of respective step.

[11] Services may be performed by a plurality of Wrappers both registering and controlling services by categorized service having similar function.

Advantageous Effects

[12] According to the present invention, the present invention can maximize the capability of reconfiguring a system by dynamically corresponding to modules to be either modified or added at any time and provide a service by searching a most suitable module to a situation for the request of the application. Moreover, it can provide a suitable service, even though the service to be served is not adequately designated. Brief Description of the Drawings

[13] The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detailed example embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying figures, in which:

[14] Figure 1 is a drawing illustrating the configuration of an open framework system applied the present invention.

[15] Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of an open framework applied the present invention.

[16] Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating the method of controlling process of the framework according to the present invention. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[17] In order to sufficiently understand the present invention, the benefits for the operations of the present invention, and the purpose of achievement for the embodiments of the present invention, it will be referred to the corresponding drawings and the contents of the corresponding drawings.

[18] Preferable embodiments of the invention are described below with reference to the corresponding drawings. Throughout the drawings, reference numbers indicate identical elements, components, or steps.

[19] The open framework system applied the present invention has the base of community computing such as a harmonious collaboration computing environment, and is configured to an open platform by using a unified architecture technology such as various devices and services, etc., for the traditional ubiquitous environment.

[20] Since the open framework applied the present invention effectively establishes

US S (Ubiquitous Smart Space) in flexibly unifying services of various protocols, it aims at highly extensible and flexible structure for unifying unpredictable services. And, it eliminates the non-efficiency of the traditional application depending on a using service by providing various services to the application transparently. The service unified framework may not only simply unify services, but provide a structure that transfers context information to either requiring applications or services at suitable timing, so that it might have the structural characteristics most suitable to the ubiquitous environment. The service unified framework provides the transparency of service searching and execution, so application developers may not consider any execution environment of services, and execution method of how they have to execute services. On the contrary, service beneficiary may be provided with the best service suitable to any situation among services registered in the service-unified framework.

[21] In the framework according to the present invention, an internal process flow is controlled by using a simple workflow method so that the process flow can be defined at the time when the framework is distributed to a specific domain while not considering any change of unpredictable process flow at developing timing.

[22] Figure 1 is a drawing illustrating the configuration of an open framework system applied the present invention.

[23] Referring to Fig.l, an open framework system 100 may comprise an application

110, a framework 120, web-service searching module 130, a Context Broker Module 140, a message broker 150, web services 172, 174 and 176, and sensors 192, 194 and 196.

[24] The application 110 may request a service to the framework 120, and receive an execution result thereof. Messages may be delivered between the application 110 and the framework 120 through the message broker 150. Since adapters are needed in order to deliver messages by using the message broker 150, the framework adapters 112, 122, 132 and 142 are used in the respective devices.

[25] The framework 120 is a platform to unify application, service and various middlewares under a dynamic heterogeneous computing environment. Since the service-unified framework 120 comprises a Wrapper, an interface specification is possible to incorporate both functions and specifications of services performing similar functions.

[26] The framework 120 may provide a Wrapper specification for the respective function blocks of a service system. External services should support such a wrapper specification. In order to conform the Wrapper specification, an external module is provided, so that the existing service protocols may be converted and services may be provided to the service-unified framework. Moreover, the external module is constructed for supporting respective different middlewares and protocols; so, unifications among middlewares, among services and middlewares, and among protocols are all possible. In embodiment of the present invention, a web-service searching module 130 and a Context Broker Module 140 is provided as the external module.

[27] The framework 120 may comprise a Service Discovery Wrapper 124, a Service

Invocation Wrapper 126 and a Context Broker Wrapper 128.

[28] The Service Discovery Wrapper 124 may provide the framework with function and suggest a standard specification in which all discovery services using the framework must keep. A specification is provided to service discoverers so that it may be unified in the service -unified framework. And, the previously developed services should be compatible by constructing a separate module incorporating specifications. Service searching is a function that accurately finds a service to be used. The service searching is an essential function for using the service-unified framework as well as the service invocation.

[29] The Service Invocation Wrapper 126 is a wrapper performing service of the domain of the service-unified framework. The Service Invocation Wrapper 126 may provide specification performing services by unifying service execution frameworks mingled in the service -unified framework. By providing the specification, services to be developed thereafter may provide services to the service-unified framework without separate measures by constructing a service.

[30] A Context Broker Wrapper 128 may suggest a standard specification to be kept in order to exchange information between the application 110 and the Context Broker Module 140. Context broker may be used by providing specification to the application 110 that is referring the context information.

[31] The Context Broker is a service system providing various context information needed in a community. It is an essential function to provide a suitable service to context in the community, and may exist in various formats according to types and purposes of the context. The service unified framework may control a plurality of context brokers, and provide the Context Broker Wrapper to the application 110 requesting the context information in order to deliver information efficiently.

[32] The Context Broker Module 140 may be configured to extract useful information for driving corresponding device, by monitoring various kinds of context in real time through a Sensor network 180, collecting data, analyzing in real time, and examining in real time, and be configured to control useful devices to users by self -recognizing context information (location, noise around, work, time and schedule, etc.) of the users changing at any time, such as CAS (Context- Aw are Service), etc..

[33] Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of an open framework applied the present invention.

[34] Referring to Fig. 2, the framework 120 may comprise a process flow engine 210,

GDL interpreter 220, a Wrapper administration unit 230, a first Wrapper container 242, a second wrapper container 244, a third Wrapper container 246, and a telecommunication administration unit 250.

[35] The process flow engine 210 may reconfigure overall process flow by modifying the process flow of next step according to a result value of the respective steps of the process flow. The process flow engine 210 may request services to the Wrapper administration unit 230 at every step of corresponding process flow. YAWL(Yet Another Workflow language) may be used as language to express process flow in the process flow engine 210. The YAWL is a strong workflow language complemented and improved the weak points of Petri Nets. The Petri Nets may have limits that does not support multiple instances, synchronized pattern and cancellation pattern. The YAWL according to the present invention, however, is a static based workflow language complemented the multiple instances, composite tasks, OR-joins, removal of tokens and directly connected transition, etc..

[36] Since the YAWL supports all workflow patterns, it has a good expression, and has potential merit to be able to share process models written in other workflow languages. Therefore, the YAWL may be suitable in both extendibly expressing and applying the process flow of the service-unified framework.

[37] Symbols are shown to use at every node of the YAWL. A workflow may be visibly expressed by using the symbols. The YAWL may provide GUI(Graphic User Interface) editor to design workflow and be able to do visual design by using it.

[38] The GDL interpreter 220 may interpret GDL typed data to be inputted by the telecommunication administration unit 250 and then may select a suitable PFDL(Processflow Description Language) among the PFDL stored in a PFDL storage unit 270.

[39] When the application 110 either requests services or receives corresponding results to/from the framework 120, data should be exchanged by using GDL technical language. The GDL is a language described a goal of the application, namely, Orchestration of services such as service searching, invocation or solution of a particular problem.

[40] A GDL Parser 224 may interpret the GDL, and a PFDL administration unit 222 may select a suitable PFDL in the PFDL storage unit 270 storing before.

[41] The Wrapper administration unit 230 may search and invocate respective wrappers for the services requested by the process flow engine 210. The Wrapper administration unit 230 may comprise a Wrapper table 232 both registering and controlling a plurality of wrappers, and a Wrapper invocation unit 234 charging the invocation of wrapper.

[42] A plurality of Wrapper containers, 242, 244 and 246 may comprise a plurality of wrappers. The wrappers may both register and control services by service having similar function. In the embodiment illustrated, the first Wrapper container 242 may comprise the Service Discovery Wrapper 124, the second Wrapper container 244 may comprise the Service Invocation Wrapper 126, and the third Wrapper container 246 may comprise the Context Broker Wrapper 128. These wrappers may be further supplemented except basically established ones.

[43] As followings is illustrated about a method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily according to the present invention.

[44] The method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily according to the present invention, under an assumption requiring a series of processes such as searching, selecting and executing external services registered in the framework, may have a process flow of next step alter due to a result value of every step on such a process flow.

[45] Figure 3 is illustrated in a flow chart for the method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily according to the present invention. As followings is illustrated about the method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system in connecting with the elements of Fig. 2.

[46] Referring to Figs. 2 and 3, the process flow engine 210 may send a requesting message searching the service that the application 100 are requesting, to the Service Discovery Wrapper 124 through the Wrapper administration unit 230(S300). Services to be used at the framework 120 are registered in the Service Discovery Wrapper 124. The method of registering service through the Service Discovery Wrapper 124 may have a merit such as either adding or altering a new service with ease without correcting the framework.

[47] The Service Discovery Wrapper 124 may determine whether there is a requesting service among the services registered (S310). The Service Discovery Wrapper 124 may send a searching result to the process flow engine 210. The process flow engine 210 may determine whether the searched services are more than one (S320). If the searched services are more than one, the process flow engine 210 may select a most suitable service to achieve the purpose among the services (S330). If the searched service is one or a service is selected among the searched service, the process flow engine 210 may invocate the service through the Service Invocation Wrapper 126 and perform the service (S340).

[48] In case that there is no searched service, the process flow engine 210 may determine whether the Orchestration is possible (S350). The Orchestration provides necessary services by combining the existing services. The Orchestration may be performed if it is possible (S360). Searched services are invocated and performed according to the performing result of the Orchestration. If the Orchestration is not possible, all processes may be terminated.

[49] The foregoing is illustrative of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting thereof. Although a few example embodiments of the present invention have been described, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the example embodiments without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of the present invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention as defined in the claims. Therefore, it is to be understood that the foregoing is illustrative of the present invention and is not to be construed as limited to the specific embodiments disclosed, and that modifications to the disclosed embodiments, as well as other embodiments, are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. The present invention is defined by the following claims, with equivalents of the claims to be included therein.

Claims

[1] A method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily controlling a process of framework adaptively for various situations under ubiquitous computing environment comprising a plurality of services and applications comprising: discovering a necessary service to achieve a goal among services of various protocols; invocating the service in case the services discovered are only one; and selecting and invocating a most suitable service to achieve the goal among a plurality of services, in case that the services discovered are plural.

[2] A method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily of Claim

1, further comprising invocating a Orchestrating-possible service, if there is the Orchestration-possible service after determining whether the Orchestration- possible service exists in case of no service discovered.

[3] A method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily of Claim

1, the discovering comprises registering a new supplemented service.

[4] A method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily of any one of Claims 1 through 3, the controlling process of a framework is implemented by a process flow engine overall reconfiguring the process flow by modifying a process flow of next step due to a result value of respective step.

[5] A method of controlling adaptive process reconfiguring system easily of any one of Claims 1 through 3, services are performed by a plurality of Wrappers both registering and controlling services by categorized service having similar function.