Architectural Integration Patterns for Autonomic Management Systems

International audience<p>Large-scale, dynamic, distributed and openautonomic systems pursuing multiple, possibly conflictinggoals are difficult to design, implement and maintain. Dealing with the complex issues that such systems raise requires complex, adaptive management logic. This paper focuses on the integration of autonomic management resources as a key feature for building complex autonomic systems. This paper’s first contribution is an investigation, via a simple model, of integration issues in autonomic management systems. The discussion is illustrated via a reference use case involving smart homes connected to a micro smart grid. The second and main contribution consists in a collection of architectural design patterns, described following the classical form used in software engineering. The proposed patterns address differentclasses of integration problems, mostly concerned with conflict resolution. They are comparatively evaluated via a set of quality attributes and exemplified via reference conflict situations in the use case. Several possible extensions are subsequently identified, including various pattern compositions. The presented research is part of a more general, broader approach towards a generic, reusableframework for designing, developing and maintaining autonomic systems.