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The Role of Ontologies in Emergent Middleware: Supporting Interoperability in Complex Distributed Systems

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Publication date12/2011
Host publicationProceedings of ACM/IFIP/USENIX 12th International Middleware Conference (Middleware 2011)
EditorsFabio Kon, Anne-Marie Kermarrec
Place of PublicationBerlin
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages410-430
Number of pages21
ISBN (print)978-3-642-25820-6
<mark>Original language</mark>English
EventACM/IFIP/USENIX 12th International Middleware Conference - Lisbon, Portugal
Duration: 12/12/201116/12/2011

Conference

ConferenceACM/IFIP/USENIX 12th International Middleware Conference
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityLisbon
Period12/12/1116/12/11

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science
PublisherSpringer Berlin
Volume7049

Conference

ConferenceACM/IFIP/USENIX 12th International Middleware Conference
Country/TerritoryPortugal
CityLisbon
Period12/12/1116/12/11

Abstract

Interoperability is a fundamental problem in distributed systems, and an increasingly difficult problem given the level of heterogeneity and dynamism exhibited by contemporary systems. While progress has been made, we argue that complexity is now at a level such that existing approaches are inadequate and that a major re-think is required to identify principles and associated techniques to achieve this central property of distributed systems. In this paper, we postulate that emergent middleware is the right way forward; emergent middleware is a dynamically generated distributed system infrastructure for the current operating environment and context. In particular, we focus on the key role of ontologies in supporting this process and in providing underlying meaning and associated reasoning capabilities to allow the right run-time choices to be made. The paper presents the Connect middleware architecture as an example of emergent middleware and highlights the role of ontologies as a cross-cutting concern throughout this architecture. Two experiments are described as initial evidence of the potential role of ontologies in middleware. Important remaining challenges are also documented.