Towards Flexible Service-aware Adaptation Management in Ambient Networks

Extending the current use of the event-condition-action (ECA) logic of active databases for defining self-adaptation policy has been suggested; key research areas are adaptation policy definition, dynamic conflict detection and resolution. However, developing service-aware self-adaptation systems in heterogeneous and rapidly changing wireless networks such as ambient networks (ANs) is a challenging issue. This paper identifies that existing approaches suffer from the lack of a flexible management system to handle conflicting service adaptation policies; and often conflicting policies are simply ignored, which results in situations in which certain network conditions are not satisfied. In this paper, we present the ambient virtual pipe (AVP) platform, that uses an action object base (AOB) that enables flexible management of potentially conflicting adaptation policies. Two conflict resolution approaches, known as the AVP action prioritisation approach and the AVP composition approach, are also presented and discussed