STRATA; Layers for Structuring Trustworthy Ambient Systems

对于整个计算，特别是环境系统，由于信息物理系统（CPS）的快速发展，将不得不面临重大的新挑战。CPS的主要推动力是承诺的物联网（IoT）。物联网的规模可能很快涉及数万亿设备，产生大量实时数据，因此需要前所未有的功率。为了维持这种规模和巨大的能源需求激增，环境系统需要在电力、性能和可靠性之间进行权衡。不可避免地，这将需要更复杂的应对措施来实现可信度。我们的TrAmS-2平台是由影响环境系统设计的两个重要因素形成的。首先，设备的电力供应/消耗，而不是成本，正在成为环境系统部署的限制因素。其次，云计算等新范例提供了一种新的环境维度，在这种环境中，数据和程序可以在没有代理的物理移动的情况下迁移。TrAmS-2平台资助支持了我们的研究小组，该小组创建了关于可靠环境系统建模、设计和分析的良好技术基础、方法和工具的新项目。我们的团队及其参与的项目正在开发设计具有节能和功率限制硬件的移动设备的方法。我们的项目组合包括13个EPSRC，欧盟，工业和其他项目，应用领域包括汽车，铁路，航天，商业，医疗保健和消费电子产品。我们目前的工具和方法库包括Rodin， Workcraft和Symphony的强大工具集，建模容错的高级模式和世界领先的证明技术，仿真和充足的证据，以支持正式工程方法的工业部署。有了这样一个坚实的基础，我们将进入Strata，充分配备正式的工程方法，先进的工具支持，嵌入式系统设计和建模的架构和算法方法，特别是针对功率和可靠性的多种模式的捕获系统。在Strata，纽卡斯尔和约克的团队将通过双管齐下的努力来应对未来环境系统设计的挑战，从而为研究平台提供额外的动力。这将有助于在对未来资源有限的环境系统的设计和分析采取严格和基于模型的方法方面迈出质的一步。平台方法和方法论的基石是一个共同的愿景，即未来复杂的环境系统必须分层构建。系统资源的这些层和交付的功能在时间和功率方面将与跨层容错性结合在一起，甚至在必须接受组件会失败的环境中遵守（级别）规范。Strata将在四个相互关联的主题中解决挑战：方法论、跨层容错、实时分层和实权。三个相关研究小组的技能是互补的，在软件、系统和微电子方面形成了坚实的研究基础，在能力和专业知识方面建立了一支独特的团队，在正式方法、可靠性、实时和能量调制系统方面具有国际地位。Strata将为研究人员提供连续性，鼓励在这种新颖的专业知识组合创造的领域进行新的、有风险的研究。

For computing as a whole, and ambient systems in particular, significant new challenges will have to be faced because of the rapid evolution in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). A major impetus towards CPS is the promised Internet of Things (IoT). The scale of the IoT could soon involve trillions of devices generating masses of real-time data and thus demanding unprecedented power. To sustain this scaling and huge surge in energy demand, ambient systems will need to be designed to trade off power, performance and reliability. Inevitably, this will require ever more sophisticated responses to achieve trustworthiness. Our TrAmS-2 platform was shaped by two important factors affecting ambient system design. First, the power provision/consumption of devices, rather than cost, was becoming the limiting factor in the deployment of ambient systems. Second, novel paradigms such as cloud computing offered a new dimension of ambience in that data and programs can be migrated without physical movement of agents. The TrAmS-2 platform grant has sustained our research group which has created new projects on sound technical foundations, methods and tools to model, design and analyse Trustworthy Ambient Systems. Our team, and the projects in which it is involved, are developing methods for designing mobile devices with energy-efficient and power-constrained hardware. Our project portfolio includes 13 EPSRC, EU, industry and other projects with applications in sectors including automotive, rail, space, business, healthcare and consumer electronics. Our current arsenal of tools and methods includes the powerful toolsets of Rodin, Workcraft and Symphony, advanced patterns for modelling fault tolerance and world-leading techniques in proof technology, simulation and ample evidence to support industrial deployment of formal engineering methods. With such a solid foundation we will enter Strata well equipped with formal engineering methods, advanced tool support, architectural and algorithmic approaches for embedded systems design and modelling, in particular capturing systems with multiple modes targeted at power and reliability. In Strata, the research platform will receive extra impetus through a two-pronged attack on the challenges of future ambient systems design with the teams in Newcastle and York working together. This will facilitate making a qualitative step in terms of rigorous and model-based approaches to the design and analysis of future resource-limited ambient systems. The cornerstone of the platform approach and methodology is a shared vision that future complex ambient systems have to be structured in layers. These layers, or strata, of system resources and delivered functionality in terms of time and power will be combined with cross-layer fault tolerance and even adherence to the (levels of) specification in an environment where one has to accept that components will fail. Strata will address the challenges in four interlinked themes: methodology, cross-layer fault tolerance, real-time layering and real power.The skills of the three involved research groups are complementary and form a solid research base in software, systems and microelectronics to establish a unique team in terms of capability and expertise, with international profiles in formal methods, dependability, real-time and energy-modulated systems. Strata will provide continuity for research staff, encouraging new, risky, research in areas created by this novel mix of expertise.