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Modern manufacturing methods demand highly flexible and reusable assembly systems. Such flexibility and reusability can be attained using systems that are modular. These modular systems have the ability to react faster to market forces and are adaptable beyond the limits of the so-called flexibility corridor. Also, placing the constraints of flexibility and reusability on software paves the way for design and usage of generic systems that have a relatively low initial cost. However, these advantages are often overshadowed by the complexity of these software systems. Especially, one faces many difficulties in software modularizing the assembly system so that each module can be integrated seamlessly into the entire system. Defining an interface in the development phase is practically impossible given that systems evolve a lot before reaching production phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present a set of good practices in the design of a security-centric architecture for a Communication Channel that can be used to secure a Loosely-Coupled distributed platform, over unreliable communication mediums. The proposed practices are derived from designing a complete architecture that is modular and designed to support principles of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and the common functional requirements of a wide range of applications, including cybersecurity, smart power grids and industrial Internet of Things (IoT). The architecture was developed and implemented as part of the BIECO project, and is based around open standards such as Open Platform Communications United Architecture (OPC-UA). The key feature of the architecture is that it enables secure asynchronous near-real-time communication between a large number of nodes in a multimodal setup, without the need of any Service to know its place within the tool-chain. Based on our experience with building this system and based on the good results obtained, we are presenting a list of lessons learnt, recommendations for better communication channel modules within loosely coupled distributed systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automotive industry is experiencing a significant evolution from traditional hardware-defined to software-defined architecture, enabling higher levels of autonomy, connectivity, safety, and richer in-vehicle experiences. A service oriented architecture is essential for realizing Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) and fostering new business models for OEMs. However, this architecture evolution requires new development paradigms to address the increasing complexity of software, which is essential for seamless software development, integration, and deployment from cloud or backend repositories to the vehicle. Given the complexity of vehicular software updates, particularly when dealing with highly distributed embedded ECUs, a software-centric approach is more efficient and suitable to cover different architectures and configurations, ensuring consistency across all platforms. Therefore, we propose a variability-rich scheme for software updates based on a Merkle tree approach that can cope with the complexity of the new software architecture while addressing the safety and security requirements of real-time and resource-constrained embedded systems in the vehicle. The technical analysis and experiments conducted in this paper demonstrate how the proposed scheme, which combines a digital signature and a Merkle hash tree, achieves synergistic authentication and verification of multiple software variants. Our approach offers OEMs the ability to sign a software module once and verify it across multiple ECU variants, providing a more efficient alternative to the traditional method of creating a software update package for each variant. This approach not only adds flexibility to software updates and reduces the complexity of software variant management, but also maintains the security of the vehicle, ensuring that there is no compromise in the safety of the passengers.

The technological evolution of signaling systems has created a dependency from infrastructure managers to suppliers and industrials dominating the market. Indeed, for each deployed computer interlocking, the modification of field equipment is required to allow an adaptation with the new interlocking in terms of communication protocols and logical interface. In addition, to ensure safe traffic of trains, the communication of railway signaling data is necessary between interlockings. However, delayed deployments from one station to another make the establishment of communication channels costly and difficult, or even impossible, since each supplier keeps confidential its communication protocols and usually opts for interfacing based on wired logic. This paper presents our approach to a homogeneous architecture of interlocking meeting modularity requirements, interoperability, and logical interfacing between interlockings. This approach relies on a classification of internal functions of the computer interlocking, a distribution of the execution of those functions and making useful information available for interfaces between adjacent interlockings through the IEC 61499 standard coupled with service-oriented architecture (SOA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compatibility is a decisive and necessary factor which impacts the successfulness and correctness of establishing connections among services. Reliable service parameter predictions on compatibility may not only provide assurance on fulfilling workflow, but also reduce the risk of unexpected wasting on time and expenses. Recent research on service's parameter prediction focus on two aspects: Collaborative Filtering and Matrix Factorization. Both of them faces challenges from data-sparse problem, lack of solid mathematical support, and weakness on tracking dynamic services. In this paper, we propose Link-ability, a parameter to reveal the compatibility of a service. Firstly, we propose an architecture called Topology-Retrievable Service Oriented Architecture (TSOA), which is capable of collecting successful invocation records from service requesters and generate the whole topology of the service pool in a specific period of time. Secondly, we bring up the Link-ability Generation Algorithm (LGA) and Markovian mathematical strategies to generate Link-ability value. The algorithm is supported by solid mathematical proof and capable of solving data-sparse problems. Both TSOA and LGA are upgraded to adapt the circumstances of services exiting the service pool (we define it as a Drop-out). Lastly, we design and conduct two series of experiment to strengthen the reliability and correctness of Link-ability. The result shows that Link-ability considers comprehensive information of the whole topology and bring 54.18% reduction in average error rate against Drop-out scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business process changes occurred very often in organizations to maintain business continuity, which had an impact on information changes and process flow improvements. There are numerous companies that have problems managing data, information, and software applications, especially with the constant demands for employee information. This research objective is to integrate data and applications based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) by using the service-oriented modelling architecture (SOMA) software development method to solve the problem of producing updated and real-time information practically required by organization functions. This research result shows this implementation can help analyze the company's business model by generating information needs and service candidates that refer to SOA concepts. This implementation also gives a solid integration of in-house applications with different platforms and data sources from different databases with real time information. From a technical point of view, this implementation also reduces the duplication of business process functions and in-house application management, as well as simplifying and accelerating the creation of new or updating in-house applications related to new information requirements of the company. It was found that the SOMA framework can also be employed as a reference for companies developing future applications with SOA basics. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-07-02-011 Full Text: PDF

The microservices architecture (MSA) is a form of distributed systems architecture that has been widely adopted in large-scale software systems in recent years. As with other distributed system architectures, one of the challenges that MSA faces is establishing trust between the microservices, particularly in the context of open systems. The boundaries of open systems are unlimited and unknown, which means that they can be applied to any use case. Microservices can leave or join an open system arbitrarily, without restriction as to ownership or origin, and MSA systems can scale extensively. The organisation of microservices (in terms of the roles they play and the communication links they utilise) can also change in response to changes in the environment in which the system is situated. The management of trust within MSAs is of great importance as the concept of trust is critical to microservices communication, and the operation of an open MSA system is highly reliant on communication between these fine-grained microservices. Thus, a trust model should also be able to manage trust in an open environment. Current trust management solutions, however, are often domain-specific and many are not specifically tailored towards the open system model. This motivates research on trust management in the context of open MSA systems. In this paper, we examine existing microservices trust models, identify the limitations of these models in the context of the principles of open microservices systems, propose a set of qualities for open microservices trust models that emerge from these limitations, and assess selected microservices trust models using the proposed qualities.

Summary: Self‐healing is an approach that maintains the health of the system with proper supervision of its functioning and emerges from any unacceptable state during the execution. The complexity of modern distributed systems and dynamic hike in terms of users' access has led to an increase in maintenance. In this paper, a self‐healing architecture for services that exploit the autonomous capability of agent technology is proposed. The proposed mechanism is a multi‐agent system that comprises different agents with different capabilities and roles. The planning agent, responsible for taking the right decision to revive the system from an unhealthy state to a healthy state, uses a case‐based fault recovery mechanism at runtime. The architecture contains a persistent layer that maintains previously occurred failed cases. To determine the best suitable solution, the similarity between the detected fault and recorded failed cases is calculated. The case, having a maximum similarity index value is considered closest to the failure. Multiple recovery strategies like a replacement, restart, alternative resources are been utilized. Also, to validate the proposed architecture, an SOA‐based application is used and performance‐based evaluation metrics are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background As technical developments in omics and biomedical imaging increase the throughput of data generation in life sciences, the need for information systems capable of managing heterogeneous digital assets is increasing. In particular, systems supporting the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) principles of scientific data management. Results We propose a Service Oriented Architecture approach for integrated management and analysis of multi-omics and biomedical imaging data. Our architecture introduces an image management system into a FAIR-supporting, web-based platform for omics data management. Interoperable metadata models and middleware components implement the required data management operations. The resulting architecture allows for FAIR management of omics and imaging data, facilitating metadata queries from software applications. The applicability of the proposed architecture is demonstrated using two technical proofs of concept and a use case, aimed at molecular plant biology and clinical liver cancer research, which integrate various imaging and omics modalities. Conclusions We describe a data management architecture for integrated, FAIR-supporting management of omics and biomedical imaging data, and exemplify its applicability for basic biology research and clinical studies. We anticipate that FAIR data management systems for multi-modal data repositories will play a pivotal role in data-driven research, including studies which leverage advanced machine learning methods, as the joint analysis of omics and imaging data, in conjunction with phenotypic metadata, becomes not only desirable but necessary to derive novel insights into biological processes.

A faulty situation occurred in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based systems can affect its functionality. It is challenging to guarantee the reliability of service utilization in a distributed, concurrent and dynamic composition of web services. This paper aims to present a fault detection approach of SOA using dependency analysis. Data and control dependencies are identified and a fault diagnosis approach based on these dependencies is proposed in this paper. The presented approach extends discrete state space techniques to simulate the concurrent and distributed behavior through Colored Petri Nets (CPNs) for the SOA-based systems in case of the faulty situation. Concrete translation from SOA based system to a CPN model is presented. Model-based technique is used and some heuristics are presented for dependency analysis and fault detection purpose. The experimental performance analysis shows the feasibility of our proposed approach.

In healthcare services, application development is considered the most complex and time-consuming phase. As it is difficult to plan and time-intense, it requires high maintenance. Healthcare applications need strict compliance and the scope of application is immense along with associates, classes in services, and classified system. Application designing in healthcare with the help of traditional approaches such as monolithic and service-oriented architecture (SOA) generate problems in different areas like service availability, remote access to services, service provisioning, scalability, healthcare systems integration with each other. That is why there is a need for less sophisticated and user-friendly healthcare systems, which are easy to plan and develop, inexpensive requirement maintenance, and agile testing. To overcome the aforesaid issues in the domain of healthcare application development, this paper develops a framework of micro services for the development of healthcare services using cloud computing infrastructure. Micro-service-based techniques provide lightly coupled and fine-grained methodology. With the use of micro services technique presented in this work, the efficiency, scalability, and performance are improved. In this research, an approach for development and deployment properly in the cloud for healthcare applications is developed. Thus, it contributes to the system design approach and system analysis. Quantitative and qualitative results are reported showing the advantages of micro services approach used.

This paper studies the optimal and fair service allocation for a variety ofmobile applications (single or group and collaborative mobile applications) inmobile cloud computing. We exploit the observation that using tiered clouds,i.e. clouds at multiple levels (local and public) can increase the performanceand scalability of mobile applications. We proposed a novel framework to modelmobile applications as a location-time workflows (LTW) of tasks; here usersmobility patterns are translated to mobile service usage patterns. We show thatan optimal mapping of LTWs to tiered cloud resources considering multiple QoSgoals such application delay, device power consumption and user cost/price isan NP-hard problem for both single and group-based applications. We propose anefficient heuristic algorithm called MuSIC that is able to perform well (73% ofoptimal, 30% better than simple strategies), and scale well to a large numberof users while ensuring high mobile application QoS. We evaluate MuSIC and the2-tier mobile cloud approach via implementation (on real world clouds) andextensive simulations using rich mobile applications like intensive signalprocessing, video streaming and multimedia file sharing applications. Ourexperimental and simulation results indicate that MuSIC supports scalableoperation (100+ concurrent users executing complex workflows) while improvingQoS. We observe about 25% lower delays and power (under fixed priceconstraints) and about 35% decrease in price (considering fixed delay) incomparison to only using the public cloud. Our studies also show that MuSICperforms quite well under different mobility patterns, e.g. random waypoint andManhattan models.

Cloud computing has evolved with various techniques for satisfying the needs of users to reduce costs and offer better results. The users' needs may include sharing of resources like memories, processors, apps, information, data, applications, etc., whereas, performance should be in terms of improved DC processing period & response time. Apart from the above-said, there is also a requirement to manage the stability of the system and be flexible to make amendments to the system. Static data is used to optimize the project schedule. However, the traditional does not take into account the personnel allocation matrix when scheduling projects. The ACO model is not a suitable solution to the scheduling problem. The classic ACO methodology operates in two phases: the first phase uses an event-based scheduler to address the complex planning issue. Planning and allocating resources for a project are both constrained by these two approaches. The event-based ACO model was developed to match the resource restrictions and activity schedule to handle dynamic data allocation. When it comes to multi-objective scheduling, EBS with ACO is not an adequate approach. An updated ACO technique to optimum global search employing a neural network approach was presented to schedule many activities to tackle the difficulty of multiple objectives. Using the suggested multi-objective technique, an activity with a defined number of tasks and necessary resources may be optimally organized. The algorithm LBACO is the most effective one to apply for optimizing the objective function, according to the test results, as well as the fastest. An advantage of ACO over other techniques is its ability to provide better plans with higher statistics and mean access times, as well as more consistent job assignments.

Traditionally, the resources of embedded devices which are employed for process control at shop floors were resource constrained. However, advances in embedded system technologies permit the enhancement of the processing and storage capabilities of embedded devices. Therefore, semantic descriptions of manufacturing systems can now be hosted and computed at the device level. This fact permits the creation of a decentralised solution for controlling processes at the lowest level of the manufacturing enterprises and the reduction in the time and effort requirements for the configuration and information exchange. The eScop project presented the Open Knowledge-Driven Manufacturing Execution System (OKD-MES) solution, which enables monitoring and controlling production systems openly and allows runtime re-configurability of interconnected industrial equipment and services. This research work presents how part of the OKD-MES functionality can be handled at lower level. More precisely, the OKD-MES representation and management of knowledge can be decentralised and handled at the shop floor level, where the industrial machines are connected to devices that are capable of controlling the execution of processes. The main objective of this paper is to describe a decentralised vision for the OKD-MES framework, which is a centric solution in terms of knowledge management. Moreover, the article also discusses some of the advantages to be gained from decentralising the management of knowledge model semantic descriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data acquisition is a required step for any industrial application. Industrial automation traditionally relies on Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), and remote I/O is an important element of this infrastructure. The remote I/O is responsible for the data acquisition of sensors and actuators of industrial processes. The distributed I/O represents an evolution of the remote I/O to include processing and support network communication. With the adoption of recent technologies within the industry 4.0, automation solutions are facing servitization and being develop as a service. This paper describes the development of an open-source and low-cost distributed I/O as a service for industrial automation. The solution is based on a single board computer with I/O expansion modules, a microservice framework and a customized software to enable the I/O data acquisition to function in a networked, standardized, and scalable manner. Some application examples of the distributed I/O service are presented such as the I/O redundancy and historian, process control, and IIoT monitoring.

Service‐oriented architecture (SOA) has been widely used to design enterprise applications in the past two decades. The services in SOA are becoming complex with the increase in changing user requirements and SOA is still seen as monolithic from a deployment perspective. Monolithic services make the application complex, and it becomes difficult to maintain. With the evolution of microservices architecture, software architects started migrating legacy applications to microservices. However, existing migration approaches in the literature mostly focus on migrating monolithic applications to microservices. To the best of our knowledge, very few works have been done in migrating SOA applications to microservices. One of the major challenges in the migration process is the extraction of microservices from the existing legacy applications. To address this, we propose an approach to extract the candidate microservices using graph based algorithms. In particular, four algorithms are defined: (i) construction of service graph (SG), (ii) construction of task graph (TG) for each service of the a SOA application, (iii) extraction of candidate microservices using the SG of SOA application, and (iv) construction of a SG for a microservices application to retain the dependencies between the generated microservices. We chose a SOA‐based web application to demonstrate the proposed microservices extraction approach and extracted the microservices. Additionally, we have evaluated the extracted microservices and compared them with SOA based services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, service oriented architecture (SOA) has been increasingly adopted to develop distributed applications in the context of the Internet. To develop reliable SOA-based applications, an important issue is how to ensure the quality of web services. In this article, we propose a dynamic random testing (DRT) technique for web services, which is an improvement over the widely-practiced random testing (RT) and partition testing (PT) approaches. We examine key issues when adapting DRT to the context of SOA, including a framework, guidelines for parameter settings, and a prototype for such an adaptation. Empirical studies are reported where DRT is used to test three real-life web services, and mutation analysis is employed to measure the effectiveness. Our experimental results show that, compared with the three baseline techniques, RT, Adaptive Testing (AT) and Random Partition Testing (RPT), DRT demonstrates higher fault-detection effectiveness with a lower test case selection overhead. Furthermore, the theoretical guidelines of parameter setting for DRT are confirmed to be effective. The proposed DRT and the prototype provide an effective and efficient approach for testing web services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As technical developments in omics and biomedical imaging increase the throughput of data generation in life sciences, the need for information systems capable of managing heterogeneous digital assets is increasing. In particular, systems supporting the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) principles of scientific data management. Results: We propose a Service Oriented Architecture approach for integrated management and analysis of multi-omics and biomedical imaging data. Our architecture introduces an image management system into a FAIR-supporting, web-based platform for omics data management. Interoperable metadata models and middleware components implement the required data management operations. The resulting architecture allows for FAIR management of omics and imaging data, facilitating metadata queries from software applications. The applicability of the proposed architecture is demonstrated using two technical proofs of concept and a use case, aimed at molecular plant biology and clinical liver cancer research, which integrate various imaging and omics modalities. Conclusions: We describe a data management architecture for integrated, FAIR-supporting management of omics and biomedical imaging data, and exemplify its applicability for basic biology research and clinical studies. We anticipate that FAIR data management systems for multi-modal data repositories will play a pivotal role in data-driven research, including studies which leverage advanced machine learning methods, as the joint analysis of omics and imaging data, in conjunction with phenotypic metadata, becomes not only desirable but necessary to derive novel insights into biological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A faulty situation occurred in Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based systems can affect its functionality. It is challenging to guarantee the reliability of service utilization in a distributed, concurrent and dynamic composition of web services. This paper aims to present a fault detection approach of SOA using dependency analysis. Data and control dependencies are identified and a fault diagnosis approach based on these dependencies is proposed in this paper. The presented approach extends discrete state space techniques to simulate the concurrent and distributed behavior through Colored Petri Nets (CPNs) for the SOA-based systems in case of the faulty situation. Concrete translation from SOA based system to a CPN model is presented. Model-based technique is used and some heuristics are presented for dependency analysis and fault detection purpose. The experimental performance analysis shows the feasibility of our proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fourth industrial revolution aims to achieve greater productivity, also seeking to improve the quality and efficiency of production processes. For this, the use of information and automation technologies together becomes indispensable. Collaborative automation through the sharing and use of services has been a recent paradigm in the quest to obtain a distributed, flexible and integrated on network architecture. In this article, the development of control and automation applications as a service using a Microservices Oriented Architecture is investigated. The architecture is elaborated using the Moleculer framework, which simplifies the development of microservices and applications that make up the Microservice Oriented Architecture used in this work. The development and evaluation of several services are presented, such as Data Acquisition (DAQ), Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and PID Controller (PIDPlus). The experimental results in different scenarios demonstrated the feasibility of implementing control and automation applications as a service. A relevant advantage that this type of architecture provides is interoperability through automatic network communication between applications and microservices, which is required for Industry 4.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim: Laboratories are one of the most important scientific and research centers. Laboratory information management systems provide a platform for recording the information and collaborating between researchers. The main purpose of this study was suggesting an organizational architecture model of laboratory information management systems. Materials and Methods: This study was a qualitative study. In this study, we extracted available documentation and information on laboratory information management systems from databases. Then, 16 faculties and staffs using the Sharif University of Technologychr('39')s laboratory services were selected by snowball sampling and interviewed to determine needs. Based on needs, enterprise architecture models were extracted from databases. 16 experts have evaluated the enterprise architecture model to select the best model suitable for laboratory services. Due to various technical and managerial aspects of laboratory management systems two models of Zachman architecture and service-oriented architecture models were combined. In the next step, experts from laboratory service systems have evaluated the proposed model, using Delphi technique in three rounds. Results: The findings were analyzed in two parts: Evaluation of the needs of the laboratory information management system and presentation of the proposed model. In the proposed model, the content of each cell of the Zachman framework is approached Service-oriented were selected and integrated according to the specifications of the laboratory management system.The model was evaluated based on five levels of organizational architecture maturity. The improvement in the maturity of organizational architecture was evident at higher levels. Conclusion: The use of enterprise architecture for laboratory management systems leads to optimal use of resources and ease of collaboration.