A Generic Framework for Describing Study Plans for Networked Universities using Meta-Data

This paper presents a generic framework that can be used to describe study plans using meta-data. The context of this research and associated technologies and standards is presented. The approach adopted here has been developed within the mENU project that aims to provide a model for a European Networked University. The methodology for the design of the generic Framework is discussed and the main design requirements are presented. The approach adopted was based on a set of templates containing meta-data required for the description of programs of study and consisting of generic building elements annotated appropriately. The process followed to develop the templates is presented together with a set of evaluation criteria to test the suitability of the approach. The templates structure is presented and example templates are shown. A first evaluation of the approach has shown that the proposed framework can provide a flexible and competent means for the generic description of study plans for the purposes of a networked university.

A policy-definition language and prototype implementation library for policy-based autonomic systems

This paper presents work towards generic policy toolkit support for autonomic computing systems in which the policies themselves can be adapted dynamically and automatically. The work is motivated by three needs: the need for longer-term policy-based adaptation where the policy itself is dynamically adapted to continually maintain or improve its effectiveness despite changing environmental conditions; the need to enable non autonomics-expert practitioners to embed self-managing behaviours with low cost and risk; and the need for adaptive policy mechanisms that are easy to deploy into legacy code. A policy definition language is presented; designed to permit powerful expression of self-managing behaviours. The language is very flexible through the use of simple yet expressive syntax and semantics, and facilitates a very diverse policy behaviour space through both hierarchical and recursive uses of language elements. A prototype library implementation of the policy support mechanisms is described. The library reads and writes policies in well-formed XML script. The implementation extends the state of the art in policy-based autonomics through innovations which include support for multiple policy versions of a given policy type, multiple configuration templates, and meta-policies to dynamically select between policy instances and templates. Most significantly, the scheme supports hot-swapping between policy instances. To illustrate the feasibility and generalised applicability of these tools, two dissimilar example deployment scenarios are examined. The first is taken from an exploratory implementation of self-managing parallel processing, and is used to demonstrate the simple and efficient use of the tools. The second example demonstrates more-advanced functionality, in the context of an envisioned multi-policy stock trading scheme which is sensitive to environmental volatility

Generic support for policy-based self-adaptive systems

This paper presents a policy definition language which forms part of a generic policy toolkit for autonomic computing systems in which the policies themselves can be modified dynamically and automatically. Targeted enhancements to the current state of practice include: policy self-adaptation where the policy itself is dynamically modified to match environmental conditions; improved support for non autonomics-expert developers; and facilitating easy deployment of adaptive policies into legacy code. The policy definition language permits powerful expression of self-managing behaviours and facilitates a diverse policy behaviour space. Features include support for multiple versions of a given policy type, multiple configuration templates, and meta policies to dynamically select between policy instances. An example deployment scenario illustrates advanced functionality in the context of a multi policy stock trading system which is sensitive to environmental volatility.

The AGILE policy expression language for autonomic systems

This paper presents the AGILE policy expression language. The language enables powerful expression of self-managing behaviours and facilitates policy-based autonomic computing in which the policies themselves can be adapted dynamically and automatically. The language is generic so as to be deployable across a wide spectrum of application domains, and is very flexible through the use of simple yet expressive syntax and semantics. The development of AGILE is motivated by the need for adaptive policy mechanisms that are easy to deploy into legacy code and can be used by non autonomics-expert practitioners to embed self-managing behaviours with low cost and risk. A library implementation of the policy language is described. The implementation extends the state of the art in policy-based autonomics through innovations which include support for multiple policy versions of a given policy type, multiple configuration templates, and higher-level ‘meta-policies’ to dynamically select between differently configured business-logic policy instances and templates. Two dissimilar example deployment scenarios are examined.