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arXiv · 1006.3732

Towards Adaptable and Adaptive Policy-Free Middleware

Alan Dearle·Graham Kirby·Stuart Norcross·Angus Macdonald·Greg Bigwood
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Abstract

We believe that to fully support adaptive distributed applications, middleware must itself be adaptable, adaptive and policy-free. In this paper we present a new language-independent adaptable and adaptive policy framework suitable for integration in a wide variety of middleware systems. This framework facilitates the construction of adaptive distributed applications. The framework addresses adaptability through its ability to represent a wide range of specific middleware policies. Adaptiveness is supported by a rich contextual model, through which an application programmer may control precisely how policies should be selected for any particular interaction with the middleware. A contextual pattern mechanism facilitates the succinct expression of both coarse- and fine-grain policy contexts. Policies may be specified and altered dynamically, and may themselves take account of dynamic conditions. The framework contains no hard-wired policies; instead, all policies can be configured.

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Alan Dearle, Graham Kirby, Stuart Norcross, Angus Macdonald, Greg Bigwood. 2010-06-18. Towards Adaptable and Adaptive Policy-Free Middleware. https://arxiv.org/abs/1006.3732

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