Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Standards:
The overarching vision of autonomic computing will only be
achievable through standards, particularly for communicating between
AEs. Like the agent community standardizing on a communications pro-
tocol, AEs also need a protocol standard so that they can be added to a
system and be able to communicate immediately. Besides, agile ways to
define these communications are needed, for which a key enabler would
be the self-defining property.
It has been expressed that in AC's initial deployment take-off, many re-
searchers and developers have zeroed in on self-optimization because it is
perceived as easier to translate into technology transfer [
41
]. Essentially, this
focus on optimization from the four self-chop attributes may be considered to
be going against the grain of technology trends (toward ever faster machines),
as such fine-grained optimization is not necessarily a major concern [
41
]. For
autonomic computing to succeed in the longer term, the other self-
∗
attributes
must be addressed equally and in an integrated fashion.
As well as addressing complexity, autonomic computing also offers the
promise of a lower TCO and a reduced maintenance burden as systems become
self-managing. Achieving this vision will likely make substantial demands on
legacy maintenance budgets in the short-term as autonomic function and be-
havior are progressively designed into systems.
Achieving the overarching vision of Autonomic Systems will require inno-
vations in systems and software engineering, as well as collaboration involving
many other diverse fields. Early R&D presented in this chapter highlights the
momentum that is developing on a broad front to meet the vision. The NASA
community, with its increasing utilization of autonomy in missions, will only
benefit from the evident paradigm shift within computing that brings Auto-
nomicity into the mainstream.
