Trustworthy Ambient Systems (TRAMS)

通信和网络技术的进步使得设计“环境”系统成为可能，其中移动的计算设备和软件代理形成自组织分组，共享数据和服务。纽卡斯尔大学的可靠性研究小组具有杰出的国际形象，并对基于计算机的系统的可靠性做出了重大贡献。拟议的平台赠款将使该小组能够继续其在开发容错计算系统的正式方法方面的极其成功的研究，并将其扩展到包括环境系统。它将通过提供研究人员的连续性，支持对新研究方向的初步调查，以及支持旅行和访问以维持和发展现有的和新的合作来做到这一点。我们的重点是环境系统的可信度。我们提到“可信度”是因为我们希望包含可靠性和系统可靠的证据。因此，我们感兴趣的容错技术，但也非常严格的技术，用于开发和分析容错系统，以及人的方面的可接受的环境系统。环境系统带来了巨大的新的可靠性挑战，部分原因是它们不能被设计为一个连贯的整体。移动性意味着它们将面临新的恶意干扰和意外故障模式，这些在设计时难以预测。它们的分散特征意味着复苏可能很困难。组件的单独所有权意味着我们无法设计对进化和升级的集中控制。总之，这些因素意味着传统的容错，可靠的系统，依赖于公司的运行时结构的设计时知识的工程方法，将受到挑战。环境系统的接受程度取决于社会技术因素，例如用户如何看待风险和收益。该项目旨在解决五个领域的一些具体技术挑战：- 正式基础，微积分和逻辑-集成验证工具-可信赖的环境系统的设计-环境系统的容错技术-社会技术问题这笔赠款将使我们能够在这些技术领域进行解释性工作，保留关键员工并扩大这些领域的团队专业知识，确定需要进一步研究的有希望的专题，并编写新的建议。

Advances in communications and networking technology are making it possible to devise 'ambient' systems in which mobile computing devices and software agents form ad hoc groupings, sharing data and services. The Dependability Research Group at Newcastle University has an outstanding international profile and a history of significant contributions to the trustworthiness of computer-based systems. The proposed platform grant would enable the group to continue its extremely successful research on formal methods for developing fault-tolerant computing systems and to extend this to cover ambient systems. It would do so by providing continuity of research staff, supporting preliminary investigation of new research directions, and supporting travel and visitors to maintain and develop existing and new collaborations. Our focus is on the trustworthiness of ambient systems. We refer to 'trustworthiness' because we wish to encompass both dependability and the evidence that a system is dependable. We are therefore interested in the technology of fault-tolerance, but also highly rigorous techniques for developing and analysing fault-tolerant systems, and the human dimension of the acceptability of ambient systems. Ambient systems pose huge new dependability challenges partly because they cannot be designed as a coherent whole. Mobility means they will be open to new malicious interference and accidental failure modes that are difficult to predict at design time. Their decentralised character means that recovery is potentially difficult. Separate ownership of components means that we can not design for central control over evolution and upgrades. Together, these factors mean that traditional approaches to the engineering of fault-tolerant, dependable systems, which rely on firm design-time knowledge of run-time structure, will be challenged. The very acceptance of ambient systems will depend on socio-technical factors such as how users view the risks and benefits.The project sets out to address a number of specific technical challenges in the five domains:- Formal Foundation, Calculi and Logic- Integrated Verification Tools- Design of Trustworthy Ambient Systems- Fault Tolerance Technologies for Ambient Systems- Socio-technical issues This grant will allow us to conduct investigatory work in these technical areas, to retain key staff and expand the group expertise in these areas, to identify the promising topics which need further researching and to prepare new proposals.