Smart parking service based on wireless sensor networks

n this paper, we present the design and implementation of a prototype system of Smart Parking Services based on Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) that allows vehicle drivers to effectively find the free parking places. The proposed scheme consists of wireless sensor networks, embedded web-server, central web-server and mobile phone application. In the system, low-cost wireless sensors networks modules are deployed into each parking slot equipped with one sensor node. The state of the parking slot is detected by sensor node and is reported periodically to embedded web-server via the deployed wireless sensor networks. This information is sent to central web-server using Wi-Fi networks in real-time, and also the vehicle driver can find vacant parking lots using standard mobile devices.

Towards data-aware cost-driven adaptation for service orchestrations.

Several activities in service oriented computing, such as automatic composition, monitoring, and adaptation, can benefit from knowing properties of a given service composition before executing them. Among these properties we will focus on those related to execution cost and resource usage, in a wide sense, as they can be linked to QoS characteristics. In order to attain more accuracy, we formulate execution costs / resource usage as functions on input data (or appropriate abstractions thereof) and show how these functions can be used to make better, more informed decisions when performing composition, adaptation, and proactive monitoring. We present an approach to, on one hand, synthesizing these functions in an automatic fashion from the definition of the different orchestrations taking part in a system and, on the other hand, to effectively using them to reduce the overall costs of non-trivial service-based systems featuring sensitivity to data and possibility of failure. We validate our approach by means of simulations of scenarios needing runtime selection of services and adaptation due to service failure. A number of rebinding strategies, including the use of cost functions, are compared.

VISIONS Vehicular communication Improvement : solution based on IMS Operational Nodes and Services

Digital services and communications in vehicular scenarios provide the essential assets to improve road transport in several ways like reducing accidents, improving traffic efficiency and optimizing the transport of goods and people. Vehicular communications typically rely on VANET (Vehicular Ad hoc Networks). In these networks vehicles communicate with each other without the need of infrastructure. VANET are mainly oriented to disseminate information to the vehicles in certain geographic area for time critical services like safety warnings but present very challenging requirements that have not been successfully fulfilled nowadays. Some of these challenges are; channel saturation due to simultaneous radio access of many vehicles, routing protocols in topologies that vary rapidly, minimum quality of service assurance and security mechanisms to efficiently detect and neutralize malicious attacks. Vehicular services can be classified in four important groups: Safety, Efficiency, Sustainability and Infotainment. The benefits of these services for the transport sector are clear but many technological and business challenges need to be faced before a real mass market deployment. Service delivery platforms are not prepared for fulfilling the needs of this complex environment with restrictive requirements due to the criticism of some services To overcome this situation, we propose a solution called VISIONS “Vehicular communication Improvement: Solution based on IMS Operational Nodes and Services”. VISIONS leverages on IMS subsystem and NGN enablers, and follows the CALM reference Architecture standardized by ISO. It also avoids the use of Road Side Units (RSUs), reducing complexity and high costs in terms of deployment and maintenance. We demonstrate the benefits in the following areas: 1. VANET networks efficiency. VISIONS provide a mechanism for the vehicles to access valuable information from IMS and its capabilities through a cellular channel. This efficiency improvement will occur in two relevant areas: a. Routing mechanisms. These protocols are responsible of carrying information from a vehicle to another (or a group of vehicles) using multihop mechanisms. We do not propose a new algorithm but the use of VANET topology information provided through our solution to enrich the performance of these protocols. b. Security. Many aspects of security (privacy, key, authentication, access control, revocation mechanisms, etc) are not resolved in vehicular communications. Our solution efficiently disseminates revocation information to neutralize malicious nodes in the VANET. 2. Service delivery platform. It is based on extended enablers, reference architectures, standard protocols and open APIs. By following this approach, we reduce costs and resources for service development, deployment and maintenance. To quantify these benefits in VANET networks, we provide an analytical model of the system and simulate our solution in realistic scenarios. The simulations results demonstrate how VISIONS improves the performance of relevant routing protocols and is more efficient neutralizing security attacks than the widely proposed solutions based on RSUs. Finally, we design an innovative Social Network service based in our platform, explaining how VISIONS facilitate the deployment and usage of complex capabilities. RESUMEN Los servicios digitales y comunicaciones en entornos vehiculares proporcionan herramientas esenciales para mejorar el transporte por carretera; reduciendo el número de accidentes, mejorando la eficiencia del tráfico y optimizando el transporte de mercancías y personas. Las comunicaciones vehiculares generalmente están basadas en redes VANET (Vehicular Ad hoc Networks). En dichas redes, los vehículos se comunican entre sí sin necesidad de infraestructura. Las redes VANET están principalmente orientadas a difundir información (por ejemplo advertencias de seguridad) a los vehículos en determinadas zonas geográficas, pero presentan unos requisitos muy exigentes que no se han resuelto con éxito hasta la fecha. Algunos de estos retos son; saturación del canal de acceso de radio debido al acceso simultáneo de múltiples vehículos, la eficiencia de protocolos de encaminamiento en topologías que varían rápidamente, la calidad de servicio (QoS) y los mecanismos de seguridad para detectar y neutralizar los ataques maliciosos de manera eficiente. Los servicios vehiculares pueden clasificarse en cuatro grupos: Seguridad, Eficiencia del tráfico, Sostenibilidad, e Infotainment (información y entretenimiento). Los beneficios de estos servicios para el sector son claros, pero es necesario resolver muchos desafíos tecnológicos y de negocio antes de una implementación real. Las actuales plataformas de despliegue de servicios no están preparadas para satisfacer las necesidades de este complejo entorno con requisitos muy restrictivos debido a la criticidad de algunas aplicaciones. Con el objetivo de mejorar esta situación, proponemos una solución llamada VISIONS “Vehicular communication Improvement: Solution based on IMS Operational Nodes and Services”. VISIONS se basa en el subsistema IMS, las capacidades NGN y es compatible con la arquitectura de referencia CALM estandarizado por ISO para sistemas de transporte. También evita el uso de elementos en las carreteras, conocidos como Road Side Units (RSU), reduciendo la complejidad y los altos costes de despliegue y mantenimiento. A lo largo de la tesis, demostramos los beneficios en las siguientes áreas: 1. Eficiencia en redes VANET. VISIONS proporciona un mecanismo para que los vehículos accedan a información valiosa proporcionada por IMS y sus capacidades a través de un canal de celular. Dicho mecanismo contribuye a la mejora de dos áreas importantes: a. Mecanismos de encaminamiento. Estos protocolos son responsables de llevar información de un vehículo a otro (o a un grupo de vehículos) utilizando múltiples saltos. No proponemos un nuevo algoritmo de encaminamiento, sino el uso de información topológica de la red VANET a través de nuestra solución para enriquecer el funcionamiento de los protocolos más relevantes. b. Seguridad. Muchos aspectos de la seguridad (privacidad, gestión de claves, autenticación, control de acceso, mecanismos de revocación, etc) no están resueltos en las comunicaciones vehiculares. Nuestra solución difunde de manera eficiente la información de revocación para neutralizar los nodos maliciosos en la red. 2. Plataforma de despliegue de servicios. Está basada en capacidades NGN, arquitecturas de referencia, protocolos estándar y APIs abiertos. Siguiendo este enfoque, reducimos costes y optimizamos procesos para el desarrollo, despliegue y mantenimiento de servicios vehiculares. Para cuantificar estos beneficios en las redes VANET, ofrecemos un modelo de analítico del sistema y simulamos nuestra solución en escenarios realistas. Los resultados de las simulaciones muestran cómo VISIONS mejora el rendimiento de los protocolos de encaminamiento relevantes y neutraliza los ataques a la seguridad de forma más eficientes que las soluciones basadas en RSU. Por último, diseñamos un innovador servicio de red social basado en nuestra plataforma, explicando cómo VISIONS facilita el despliegue y el uso de las capacidades NGN.

A component- and connector-based approach for end-user composite web applications development

Enabling real end-user development is the next logical stage in the evolution of Internet-wide service-based applications. Successful composite applications rely on heavyweight service orchestration technologies that raise the bar far above end-user skills. This weakness can be attributed to the fact that the composition model does not satisfy end-user needs rather than to the actual infrastructure technologies. In our opinion, the best way to overcome this weakness is to offer end-to-end composition from the user interface to service invocation, plus an understandable abstraction of building blocks and a visual composition technique empowering end users to develop their own applications. In this paper, we present a visual framework for end users, called FAST, which fulfils this objective. FAST implements a novel composition model designed to empower non-programmer end users to create and share their own self-service composite applications in a fully visual fashion. We projected the development environment implementing this model as part of the European FP7 FAST Project, which was used to validate the rationale behind our approach.

An ICT-based closed-loop model to improve care for heart failure patients

Durante las últimas décadas se ha producido un fenómeno global de envejecimiento en la población. Esta tendencia se puede observar prácticamente en todos los países del mundo y se debe principalmente a los avances en la medicina, y a los descensos en las tasas de fertilidad y mortalidad. El envejecimiento de la población tiene un gran impacto en la salud de los ciudadanos, y a menudo es la causa de aparición de enfermedades crónicas. Este tipo de enfermedades supone una amenaza y una carga importantes para la sociedad, especialmente en aspectos como la mortalidad o los gastos en los sistemas sanitarios. Entre las enfermedades cardiovasculares, la insuficiencia cardíaca es probablemente la condición con mayor prevalencia y afecta a 23-26 millones de personas en todo el mundo. Normalmente, la insuficiencia cardíaca presenta un mal pronóstico y una tasa de supervivencia bajas, en algunos casos peores que algún tipo de cáncer. Además, suele ser la causa de hospitalizaciones frecuentes y es una de las enfermedades más costosas para los sistemas sanitarios. La tendencia al envejecimiento de la población y la creciente incidencia de las enfermedades crónicas están llevando a una situación en la que los sistemas de salud no son capaces de hacer frente a la demanda de la sociedad. Los servicios de salud existentes tendrán que adaptarse para ser efectivos y sostenibles en el futuro. Es necesario identificar nuevos paradigmas de cuidado de pacientes, así como mecanismos para la provisión de servicios que ayuden a transformar estos sistemas sanitarios. En este contexto, esta tesis se plantea la búsqueda de soluciones, basadas en las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC), que contribuyan a realizar la transformación en los sistemas sanitarios. En concreto, la tesis se centra en abordar los problemas de una de las enfermedades con mayor impacto en estos sistemas: la insuficiencia cardíaca. Las siguientes hipótesis constituyen la base para la realización de este trabajo de investigación: 1. Es posible definir un modelo basado en el paradigma de lazo cerrado y herramientas TIC que formalice el diseño de mejores servicios para pacientes con insuficiencia cardíaca. 2. El modelo de lazo cerrado definido se puede utilizar para definir un servicio real que ayude a gestionar la insuficiencia cardíaca crónica. 3. La introducción, la adopción y el uso de un servicio basado en el modelo definido se traducirá en mejoras en el estado de salud de los pacientes que sufren insuficiencia cardíaca. a. La utilización de un sistema basado en el modelo de lazo cerrado definido mejorará la experiencia del usuario de los pacientes. La definición del modelo planteado se ha basado en el estándar ISO / EN 13940- Sistema de conceptos para dar soporte a la continuidad de la asistencia. Comprende un conjunto de conceptos, procesos, flujos de trabajo, y servicios como componentes principales, y representa una formalización de los servicios para los pacientes con insuficiencia cardíaca. Para evaluar el modelo definido se ha definido un servicio real basado en el mismo, además de la implementación de un sistema de apoyo a dicho servicio. El diseño e implementación de dicho sistema se realizó siguiendo la metodología de Diseño Orientado a Objetivos. El objetivo de la evaluación consistía en investigar el efecto que tiene un servicio basado en el modelo de lazo cerrado sobre el estado de salud de los pacientes con insuficiencia cardíaca. La evaluación se realizó en el marco de un estudio clínico observacional. El análisis de los resultados ha comprendido métodos de análisis cuantitativos y cualitativos. El análisis cuantitativo se ha centrado en determinar el estado de salud de los pacientes en base a datos objetivos (obtenidos en pruebas de laboratorio o exámenes médicos). Para realizar este análisis se definieron dos índices específicos: el índice de estabilidad y el índice de la evolución del estado de salud. El análisis cualitativo ha evaluado la autopercepción del estado de salud de los pacientes en términos de calidad de vida, auto-cuidado, el conocimiento, la ansiedad y la depresión, así como niveles de conocimiento. Se ha basado en los datos recogidos mediante varios cuestionarios o instrumentos estándar (i.e. EQ-5D, la Escala de Ansiedad y Depresión (HADS), el Cuestionario de Cardiomiopatía de Kansas City (KCCQ), la Escala Holandesa de Conocimiento de Insuficiencia Cardíaca (DHFKS), y la Escala Europea de Autocuidado en Insuficiencia Cardíaca (EHFScBS), así como cuestionarios dedicados no estandarizados de experiencia de usuario. Los resultados obtenidos en ambos análisis, cuantitativo y cualitativo, se compararon con el fin de evaluar la correlación entre el estado de salud objetivo y subjetivo de los pacientes. Los resultados de la validación demostraron que el modelo propuesto tiene efectos positivos en el cuidado de los pacientes con insuficiencia cardíaca y contribuye a mejorar su estado de salud. Asimismo, ratificaron al modelo como instrumento válido para la definición de servicios mejorados para la gestión de esta enfermedad. ABSTRACT During the last decades we have witnessed a global aging phenomenon in the population. This can be observed in practically every country in the world, and it is mainly caused by the advances in medicine, and the decrease of mortality and fertility rates. Population aging has an important impact on citizens’ health and it is often the cause for chronic diseases, which constitute global burden and threat to the society in terms of mortality and healthcare expenditure. Among chronic diseases, Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) or Heart Failure (HF) is probably the one with highest prevalence, affecting between 23 and 26 million people worldwide. Heart failure is a chronic, long-term and serious condition with very poor prognosis and worse survival rates than some type of cancers. Additionally, it is often the cause of frequent hospitalizations and one of the most expensive conditions for the healthcare systems. The aging trends in the population and the increasing incidence of chronic diseases are leading to a situation where healthcare systems are not able to cope with the society demand. Current healthcare services will have to be adapted and redefined in order to be effective and sustainable in the future. There is a need to find new paradigms for patients’ care, and to identify new mechanisms for services’ provision that help to transform the healthcare systems. In this context, this thesis aims to explore new solutions, based on ICT, that contribute to achieve the needed transformation within the healthcare systems. In particular, it focuses on addressing the problems of one of the diseases with higher impact within these systems: Heart Failure. The following hypotheses represent the basis to the elaboration of this research: 1. It is possible to define a model based on a closed-loop paradigm and ICT tools that formalises the design of enhanced healthcare services for chronic heart failure patients. 2. The described closed-loop model can be exemplified in a real service that supports the management of chronic heart failure disease. 3. The introduction, adoption and use of a service based on the outlined model will result in improvements in the health status of patients suffering heart failure. 4. The user experience of patients when utilizing a system based on the defined closed-loop model will be enhanced. The definition of the closed-loop model for health care support of heart failure patients have been based on the standard ISO/EN 13940 System of concepts to support continuity of care. It includes a set of concept, processes and workflows, and services as main components, and it represent a formalization of services for heart failure patients. In order to be validated, the proposed closed-loop model has been instantiated into a real service and a supporting IT system. The design and implementation of the system followed the user centred design methodology Goal Oriented Design. The validation, that included an observational clinical study, aimed to investigate the effect that a service based on the closed-loop model had on heart failure patients’ health status. The analysis of results comprised quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. The quantitative analysis was focused on determining the health status of patients based on objective data (obtained in lab tests or physical examinations). Two specific indexes where defined and considered in this analysis: the stability index and the health status evolution index. The qualitative analysis assessed the self-perception of patients’ health status in terms of quality of life, self-care, knowledge, anxiety and depression, as well as knowledge levels. It was based on the data gathered through several standard instruments (i.e. EQ-5D, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire, the Dutch Heart Failure Knowledge Scale, and the European Heart Failure Self-care Behaviour Scale) as well as dedicated non-standardized user experience questionnaires. The results obtained in both analyses, quantitative and qualitative, were compared in order to assess the correlation between the objective and subjective health status of patients. The results of the validation showed that the proposed model contributed to improve the health status of the patients and had a positive effect on the patients’ care. It also proved that the model is a valid instrument for designing enhanced healthcare services for heart failure patients.

An Autonomous Engine for Services Configuration and Deployment.

The runtime management of the infrastructure providing service-based systems is a complex task, up to the point where manual operation struggles to be cost effective. As the functionality is provided by a set of dynamically composed distributed services, in order to achieve a management objective multiple operations have to be applied over the distributed elements of the managed infrastructure. Moreover, the manager must cope with the highly heterogeneous characteristics and management interfaces of the runtime resources. With this in mind, this paper proposes to support the configuration and deployment of services with an automated closed control loop. The automation is enabled by the definition of a generic information model, which captures all the information relevant to the management of the services with the same abstractions, describing the runtime elements, service dependencies, and business objectives. On top of that, a technique based on satisfiability is described which automatically diagnoses the state of the managed environment and obtains the required changes for correcting it (e.g., installation, service binding, update, or configuration). The results from a set of case studies extracted from the banking domain are provided to validate the feasibility of this proposa

A New End-User Composition Model to Empower Knowledge Workers to Develop Rich Internet Applications

Enabling real end-user programming development is the next logical stage in the evolution of Internetwide service-based applications. Even so, the vision of end users programming their own web-based solutions has not yet materialized. This will continue to be so unless both industry and the research community rise to the ambitious challenge of devising an end-to-end compositional model for developing a new age of end-user web application development tools. This paper describes a new composition model designed to empower programming-illiterate end users to create and share their own off-the-shelf rich Internet applications in a fully visual fashion. This paper presents the main insights and outcomes of our research and development efforts as part of a number of successful European Union research projects. A framework implementing this model was developed as part of the European Seventh Framework Programme FAST Project and the Spanish EzWeb Project and allowed us to validate the rationale behind our approach.

Developing front-end Web 2.0 technologies to access services, content and things in the future Internet

The future Internet is expected to be composed of a mesh of interoperable web services accessible from all over the web. This approach has not yet caught on since global user?service interaction is still an open issue. This paper states one vision with regard to next-generation front-end Web 2.0 technology that will enable integrated access to services, contents and things in the future Internet. In this paper, we illustrate how front-ends that wrap traditional services and resources can be tailored to the needs of end users, converting end users into prosumers (creators and consumers of service-based applications). To do this, we propose an architecture that end users without programming skills can use to create front-ends, consult catalogues of resources tailored to their needs, easily integrate and coordinate front-ends and create composite applications to orchestrate services in their back-end. The paper includes a case study illustrating that current user-centred web development tools are at a very early stage of evolution. We provide statistical data on how the proposed architecture improves these tools. This paper is based on research conducted by the Service Front End (SFE) Open Alliance initiative.

Herramienta EN 301 549: cliente web

En el año 2014 se publicó, bajo mandato de la Comisión Europea, la Norma Europea EN 301 549, titulada “Requisitos de accesibilidad de productos y servicios TIC aplicables a la contratación pública en Europa”. El objetivo de dicha norma es que los productos o servicios TIC (Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación) adquiridos por cualquier administración pública europea puedan ser utilizados por personas con diversas características y capacidades, incluyendo a personas con discapacidad. La norma EN 301 549 es compleja, ya que contiene más de 200 requisitos y recomendaciones, que se aplican o no a un producto o servicio TIC en función de las características de dicho producto o servicio. Por ello se ha planteado, desde el Grupo de Investigación en Tecnología Informática y de las Comunicaciones (CETTICO), el desarrollo de una herramienta de soporte a la evaluación del cumplimiento de la norma. La herramienta permitirá a grupos de trabajo anotar los resultados de la evaluación de accesibilidad de un producto o servicio TIC siguiendo los requisitos de la norma Europea EN 301 549. Este trabajo de Fin de Grado se centra en el diseño y codificación del cliente web de la herramienta. Se parte de los resultados de un TFG y un practicum anteriores. En el TFG realizado por Laura Elorrieta [Elorrieta, 2014], se diseñó la interacción del sistema y se evaluó su grado de usabilidad. En el practicum [Montero, 2015], posterior al TFG de Laura Elorrieta, se eligieron las tecnologías web que se iban a utilizar y se realizó el diseño y la implementación mediante prototipos iterativos de la gestión de proyectos de evaluación. El trabajo que se ha realizado en el TFG ha consistido en el diseño de la interfaz de usuario analizando los cambios a realizar en el diseño, debido a los errores de usabilidad conocidos, y la implementación del prototipo funcional de la herramienta. Junto con la parte servidor del TFG de mi compañero Rubén Ortiz Burgos y la interfaz de usuario de este TFG se ha obtenido una aplicación web para realizar evaluaciones de accesibilidad de productos o servicios TIC siguiendo los requisitos de la norma EN 301 549. El prototipo funcional contiene diez páginas web que recogen las diferentes acciones y tareas que pueden realizar los usuarios en función del rol que desempeñen. EL diseño y la implementación se han llevado a cabo empleando las tecnologías web HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery y las librerías de Foundation frontend framework.---ABSTRACT---In 2014, under the European Commission mandate, the European standard EN 301 549 has been published under the title “Accessibility requirements applicable to ICT products and procurement services in Europe”. The goal of this standard is that the products or services ICT (Information Communication Technology) acquires by every European public administration can be used by every person with different characteristics and capacities, including those with disability. The rule EN 301549 is very complex, since it has more than 200 requirements and recommendations that can be or not applied to an ICT product or service based on its characteristics of the given product or service. That’s why a development of a support tool has been proposed to the rating of the compliance of the rule, by the Research Group of Informatics Technology and Communication. This tool will allow working groups to record the results of the compliance of accessibility of a product or service following the requirements of the European Standard EN 301549. This Final Degree Work focuses in the design and the coding of the web customer of this tool. The results of a TFG and previous practicums have been used for this. The TFG performed by Laura Elorrieta [Elorrieta, 2014], the interaction of the system was designed and degree of usability was evaluated. In the practicum [Montero, 2015], after the TFG Laura Elorrieta, web technologies used were chosen and the design and implementation were performed using iterative prototyping project management evaluation. The work done on the TFG was to design the users interface to perform analyzing changes in design due to errors known usability and working prototype implementation of the tool. Together with the server part of the TFG my partner Rubén Ortiz Burgos and the user interface done of this TFG it has obtained a web application for the conduct of evaluations accessibility of products or services ICT following the requirements of the EN 301 549. The functional prototype contains ten web sites that collect the various activities and tasks that users can perform based on the role they perform. The design and implementation have been carried out using the technologies web HTML5, CSS3, Java Script, jQuery and the libraries of Foundation fronted framework.

Desarrollo de una plataforma de gestión de un laboratorio automatizado

El presente TFG está enmarcado en el contexto de la biología sintética (más concretamente en la automatización de protocolos) y representa una parte de los avances en este sector. Se trata de una plataforma de gestión de laboratorios autónomos. El resultado tecnológico servirá para ayudar al operador a coordinar las máquinas disponibles en un laboratorio a la hora de ejecutar un experimento basado en un protocolo de biología sintética. En la actualidad los experimentos biológicos tienen una tasa de éxito muy baja en laboratorios convencionales debido a la cantidad de factores externos que intervienen durante el protocolo. Además estos experimentos son caros y requieren de un operador pendiente de la ejecución en cada fase del protocolo. La automatización de laboratorios puede suponer un aumento de la tasa de éxito, además de una reducción de costes y de riesgos para los trabajadores en el entorno del laboratorio. En la presente propuesta se pretende que se dividan las distintas entidades de un laboratorio en unidades funcionales que serán los elementos a ser coordinados por la herramienta resultado del TFG. Para aportar flexibilidad a la herramienta se utilizará una arquitectura orientada a servicios (SOA). Cada unidad funcional desplegará un servicio web proporcionando su funcionalidad al resto del laboratorio. SOA es esencial para la comunicación entre máquinas ya que permite la abstracción del tipo de máquina que se trate y como esté implementada su funcionalidad. La principal dificultad del TFG consiste en lidiar con las dificultades de integración y coordinación de las distintas unidades funcionales para poder gestionar adecuadamente el ciclo de vida de un experimento. Para ello se ha realizado un análisis de herramientas disponibles de software libre. Finalmente se ha escogido la plataforma Apache Camel como marco sobre el que crear la herramienta específica planteada en el TFG. Apache Camel juega un papel importantísimo en este proyecto, ya que establece las capas de conexión a los distintos servicios y encamina los mensajes oportunos a cada servicio basándose en el contenido del fichero de entrada. Para la preparación del prototipo se han desarrollado una serie de servicios web que permitirán realizar pruebas y demostraciones de concepto de la herramienta en sí. Además se ha desarrollado una versión preliminar de la aplicación web que utilizará el operador del laboratorio para gestionar las peticiones, decidiendo que protocolo se ejecuta a continuación y siguiendo el flujo de tareas del experimento.---ABSTRACT---The current TFG is bound by synthetic biology context (more specifically in the protocol automation) and represents an element of progression in this sector. It consists of a management platform for automated laboratories. The technological result will help the operator to coordinate the available machines in a lab, this way an experiment based on a synthetic biological protocol, could be executed. Nowadays, the biological experiments have a low success rate in conventional laboratories, due to the amount of external factors that intrude during the protocol. On top of it, these experiments are usually expensive and require of an operator monitoring at every phase of the protocol. The laboratories’ automation might mean an increase in the success rate, and also a reduction of costs and risks for the lab workers. The current approach is hoped to divide the different entities in a laboratory in functional units. Those will be the elements to be coordinated by the tool that results from this TFG. In order to provide flexibility to the system, a service-oriented architecture will be used (SOA). Every functional unit will deploy a web service, publishing its functionality to the rest of the lab. SOA is essential to facilitate the communication between machines, due to the fact that it provides an abstraction on the type of the machine and how its functionality is implemented. The main difficulty of this TFG consists on grappling with the integration and coordination problems, being able to manage successfully the lifecycle of an experiment. For that, a benchmark has been made on the available open source tools. Finally Apache Camel has been chosen as a framework over which the tool defined in the TFG will be created. Apache Camel plays a fundamental role in this project, given that it establishes the connection layers to the different services and routes the suitable messages to each service, based on the received file’s content. For the prototype development a number of services that will allow it to perform demonstrations and concept tests have been deployed. Furthermore a preliminary version of the webapp has been developed. It will allow the laboratory operator managing petitions, to decide what protocol goes next as it executes the flow of the experiment’s tasks.

Dynamic Model-based Management of Service-Oriented Infrastructure.

Models are an effective tool for systems and software design. They allow software architects to abstract from the non-relevant details. Those qualities are also useful for the technical management of networks, systems and software, such as those that compose service oriented architectures. Models can provide a set of well-defined abstractions over the distributed heterogeneous service infrastructure that enable its automated management. We propose to use the managed system as a source of dynamically generated runtime models, and decompose management processes into a composition of model transformations. We have created an autonomic service deployment and configuration architecture that obtains, analyzes, and transforms system models to apply the required actions, while being oblivious to the low-level details. An instrumentation layer automatically builds these models and interprets the planned management actions to the system. We illustrate these concepts with a distributed service update operation.

A Model-based Repository for Open Source Service and Component Integration.

Open source is a software development paradigm that has seen a huge rise in recent years. It reduces IT costs and time to market, while increasing security and reliability. However, the difficulty in integrating developments from different communities and stakeholders prevents this model from reaching its full potential. This is mainly due to the challenge of determining and locating the correct dependencies for a given software artifact. To solve this problem we propose the development of an extensible software component repository based upon models. This repository should be capable of solving the dependencies between several components and work with already existing repositories to access the needed artifacts transparently. This repository will also be easily expandable, enabling the creation of modules that support new kinds of dependencies or other existing repository technologies. The proposed solution will work with OSGi components and use OSGi itself.

Automated attribute inference in complex service workflows based on sharing analysis

The properties of data and activities in business processes can be used to greatly facilítate several relevant tasks performed at design- and run-time, such as fragmentation, compliance checking, or top-down design. Business processes are often described using workflows. We present an approach for mechanically inferring business domain-specific attributes of workflow components (including data Ítems, activities, and elements of sub-workflows), taking as starting point known attributes of workflow inputs and the structure of the workflow. We achieve this by modeling these components as concepts and applying sharing analysis to a Horn clause-based representation of the workflow. The analysis is applicable to workflows featuring complex control and data dependencies, embedded control constructs, such as loops and branches, and embedded component services.

Constraint-based runtime prediction of SLA violations in service orchestrations

Service compositions put together loosely-coupled component services to perform more complex, higher level, or cross-organizational tasks in a platform-independent manner. Quality-of-Service (QoS) properties, such as execution time, availability, or cost, are critical for their usability, and permissible boundaries for their values are defined in Service Level Agreements (SLAs). We propose a method whereby constraints that model SLA conformance and violation are derived at any given point of the execution of a service composition. These constraints are generated using the structure of the composition and properties of the component services, which can be either known or empirically measured. Violation of these constraints means that the corresponding scenario is unfeasible, while satisfaction gives values for the constrained variables (start / end times for activities, or number of loop iterations) which make the scenario possible. These results can be used to perform optimized service matching or trigger preventive adaptation or healing.

A constraint-based approach to quality assurance in service choreographies.

Knowledge about the quality characteristics (QoS) of service com- positions is crucial for determining their usability and economic value. Ser- vice quality is usually regulated using Service Level Agreements (SLA). While end-to-end SLAs are well suited for request-reply interactions, more complex, decentralized, multiparticipant compositions (service choreographies) typ- ically involve multiple message exchanges between stateful parties and the corresponding SLAs thus encompass several cooperating parties with interde- pendent QoS. The usual approaches to determining QoS ranges structurally (which are by construction easily composable) are not applicable in this sce- nario. Additionally, the intervening SLAs may depend on the exchanged data. We present an approach to data-aware QoS assurance in choreographies through the automatic derivation of composable QoS models from partici- pant descriptions. Such models are based on a message typing system with size constraints and are derived using abstract interpretation. The models ob- tained have multiple uses including run-time prediction, adaptive participant selection, or design-time compliance checking. We also present an experimen- tal evaluation and discuss the benefits of the proposed approach.