SoD-HCER: Using Non-Linear Negotiation to Enable the Design of Robust Open Software Systems

由独立开发的组件使用商定的协议交互组成的开放软件系统是支持应用程序的最有前途的方法之一，在这些应用程序中，必须在较小的时间框架内在手头的基础设施(例如，联军部队、灾难恢复行动、供应链、协作工程项目和电子市场)上组装和重新配置各种组织，这些组织以前通常没有合作过。确保这样的系统是可靠的是一项挑战；使开放系统具有吸引力的开放性使它们置身于潜在故障模式(“异常”)和相关的异常处理技术的领域，而这些潜在的故障模式(“异常”)和相关的异常处理技术往往并不明显。组件可能无法正常运行；它们可能会撒谎以获取优势，甚至会恶意操作。我们不能查看或操纵它们的代码或内部状态。而且，由于没有任何一个“当家作主”的因素，我们必须做好应对非本地原因和后果的紧急问题的准备。各种可能的开放系统交互协议加剧了问题，从约束满足到市场再到蜂群，每个协议都有自己独特的一组潜在例外和相关的处理程序。不幸的是，现有的技术几乎没有帮助我们设计更可靠的开放系统；设计人员必须依靠他们的经验和直觉来确定哪些例外适用于他们的特定系统，以及如何最好地解决这些例外。在这个项目中，PI将通过帮助协作软件设计团队在可能的开放系统设计的广阔空间中快速搜索他们认为对其特定应用可靠和有效的设计来解决这一差距。要做到这一点，他将集成和扩展两项迄今尚未在软件工程环境中应用的强大创新。第一个是开放系统协调机制的分类组织知识库，每个机制链接到其特有的异常，每个异常链接到其可能的处理程序。该知识库通过描绘一组正交设计维度来定义可能的开放系统设计的非常大的空间。第二个创新是一系列谈判算法，帮助具有不同兴趣的设计师在如此大的非线性设计空间中快速收敛于帕累托最优(双赢)设计协议。到目前为止，关于非线性谈判(即，与相互关联的问题的谈判)的工作很少，这项工作仅专注于“平面”设计空间(具有一组静态的预定义设计维度)。这个项目将推动我们对如何找到具有分类结构的设计空间的帕累托最优解决方案的理解，这种形式化可能适用于广泛的现实生活中的产品和过程设计挑战。广泛的影响：这项工作将帮助我们更快、更有效地设计健壮的开放系统，特别是通过提供开放系统协调和异常处理专业知识的全面且组织良好的知识库，将特别帮助学生和教育工作者。它将为复杂的合同开发谈判算法，这是一个涉及从定义电子商务到飞机设计等领域的挑战。结果将通过网络软件和传统媒体广泛传播。

Open software systems made up of independently developed components interacting using agreed-upon protocols represent one of the most promising approaches for supporting applications where organizations of all kinds, which often have not previously worked together, must be assembled and reconfigured within small time frames on the infrastructures at hand (e.g., coalition military forces, disaster recovery operations, supply chains, collaborative engineering projects, and electronic marketplaces). Ensuring that such systems are reliable is a challenge; the very openness that makes open systems attractive places them in a realm where the potential failure modes ('exceptions') and associated exception handling techniques are numerous and often far from obvious. Components may not operate correctly; they may lie to get an advantage, even act maliciously. We cannot view or manipulate their code or internal state. And since there is no one component 'in charge', we must be prepared to deal with emergent problems with non-local causes and effects. The problems are exacerbated by the wide range of possible open system interaction protocols, ranging from constraint satisfaction to markets to swarms, each with their own unique set of potential exceptions and relevant handlers. Unfortunately, existing techniques do little to help us design more reliable open systems; designers must rely on their experience and intuition to determine what exceptions apply to their particular system, and how those exceptions can best be addressed. In this project, the PI will tackle this gap by helping groups of collaborating software designers rapidly search through the vast space of possible open system designs for ones that they agree will be reliable and effective for their particular application. To do this, he will integrate and extend two powerful innovations that have not been applied in software engineering contexts heretofore. The first is a taxonomically organized knowledge base of open system coordination mechanisms, with each mechanism linked to its characteristic exceptions and each exception linked to its possible handlers. This knowledge base defines, by delineating a set of orthogonal design dimensions, a very large space of possible open system designs. The second innovation is a family of negotiation algorithms that help designers with diverse interests rapidly converge on pareto-optimal (win-win) design agreements in such large nonlinear design spaces. Very little work has been done to date on nonlinear negotiation (i.e., negotiation with interdependent issues), and this work has focused exclusively on "flat" design spaces (with a static set of predefined design dimensions). This project will push forward our understanding of how to find pareto-optimal solutions with taxonomically structured design spaces, a formalization that is potentially applicable to a wide range of important real-life product and process design challenges.Broader Impacts: This work will help us design robust open systems more quickly and effectively, and will in particular help students and educators by providing a comprehensive and well-organized knowledge base of open system coordination and exception handling expertise. It will develop negotiation algorithms for complex contracts, a challenge relevant to domains ranging from defining electronic commerce to airplane design. The results will be broadly disseminated, via web-accessible software as well as traditional media.