Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8.2.9 Related Initiatives
Other self-managing initiatives include:
•
Cisco (adaptive network care) [
71
]
•
HP (adaptive infrastructure) [
54
]
•
Intel (proactive computing) [
187
]
•
Microsoft (dynamic systems initiative) [
95
]
•
Sun (N1) [
164
]
All of these initiatives are concluding that the only viable long-term solution
is to create computer systems that manage themselves.
The latest related research initiative is autonomic communications [
149
,
150
]. An European Union brainstorming workshop in July 2003 to discuss
novel communication paradigms for 2020 identified “Autonomic Communica-
tions” as an important area for future research and development [
142
]. This
can be interpreted as further work on self-organizing networks, but is un-
doubtedly a reflection of the growing influence of the autonomic computing
initiative.
Autonomic communications has the same motivators as the autonomic
computing concept, except it has a focus on the communications research
and development community. Research in autonomic communications pur-
sues an understanding of how an autonomic network element's behaviors are
learned, influenced, or changed, and how this effects other elements, groups,
and networks. The ability to adapt the behavior of the elements was consid-
ered particularly important in relation to drastic changes in the environment,
such as technical developments or new economic models [
142
]. This initiative
has now evolved into a major European research program, known as “situated
and autonomic communications” (SAC) [
141
].
8.2.10 Related Paradigms
Related initiatives, as in perceived future computer paradigms, include grid
computing, utility computing, pervasive computing, ubiquitous computing, in-
visible computing, world computing, ambient intelligence, ambient networks,
and so on. The driving force behind these future paradigms of computing is
the increasing convergence between the following technologies:
•
Proliferation of devices
•
Wireless networking
•
Mobile software
Weiser first described what has come to be known as ubiquitous computing
[
188
] as the move away from the “dramatic” machine (where hardware and
software was to be so exciting that users would not want to be without it)
toward making the machine “invisible” (so embedded in users' lives that it
would be used without thinking or would be unrecognized as computing).
