Advanced Network and Agent Infrastructure for the Support of
Federations of Workflow Trading Systems (ANAISOFT)
Table of content of the project description:
Introduction
ANAISOFT is a Swiss National
Science Foundation (SNF) project in the Electronic Commerce series
of the Schwerpunktprogramm Information- and Communications. It is
funded for all Swiss partners by the Swiss National Science Foundation
in Bern, Switzerland. The official project identification is
5003-057753/1 for the SNF.
Internal Project Pages
The official project web page is maintained at the University of
Geneva. Check http://anaisoft.unige.ch.
Project Introduction
Today globalization of markets induces increased
competition. Companies are challenged daily to find new ways of
reducing costs and augmenting their sales. The notion of Çtemporary
networksÈ is a paradigm that is more and more applied in industry,
where contractors form and reform cooperating groups for each
project. Essential technologies in emerging business-to-business
electronic commerce scenarios are workflow systems, agent platforms
and communication infrastructures. Workflow systems are fundamental
for supporting the coordination activities required to trigger the
insourcing and outsourcing of activities. Automated workflow trading
systems may further be built to catalyze the development of new
electronic markets by facilitating contacts between insourcers and
outsourcers. However, current solutions need to provide better support
for flexibility, performance and security.
Project Overview
In response to these issues, this project proposes to study the
creation of secure and responsive Federations of Workflow Trading
Systems (FWTS) using intelligent and mobile agent technology. In
workflow trading systems, bidding protocols, structure of catalogues
and ways to describe activities can vary from case to case, depending
on the application domains. A high degree of flexibility is needed to
cope with the specifics of each marketplace. Moreover, depending on
the needs of insourcers and outsourcers, electronic markets might be
composed either of small and/or privately owned markets, or of open
markets with large numbers of unknown actors; if the volume of trading
and of requested workflow executions augment, the performance of the
system must remain stable. Efficiency may then be ensured by
extensions with new trading systems for sharing the load. Hence, by
organizing multiple trading systems as a federation, we expect that
these flexibility and performance issues will be answered.
Project Technologies
A decentralized autonomous agent architecture provides a natural fit
for business process automation and enterprise-wide
logistics. Intelligent agents have largely shown their utility in the
support of high-level business activities. By integrating the concept
of mobility into the agent, we may further increase the level of
integration in the business process within a given enterprise. We may
as well facilitate the creation of interoperable systems on top of
distributed heterogeneous company infrastructures. This proposed
combination provides thus an enabling technology for FWTS in
large-scale networks.
In a FWTS business process, virtual private network (VPN)
technologies, as the basic technology for Intranets and Extranets, are
required or might be very helpful, since in all the phases of the
business transaction a high degree of secure communication is
required. In addition, quality-of-service (QoS) provision is essential
during the phase when customers are retrieving information about
service and product offerings, during the lifetime of a VPN serving a
virtual enterprise, and during product or service delivery and
access. An important requirement for future VPN technology is the
support of mobile users to enable them to access information available
within an Intranet or Extranet from anywhere at any time with adequate
QoS.
Appropriate charging and accounting schemes are inherently
connected with QoS-supporting communication environments, since the
selection of suitable service quality determines the communication
performance of federations. It remains to find out how QoS can be
provided appropriately in a dynamic and mobile environment.
Project Developments
This project develops original and multi-disciplinary solutions for
enabling flexible, efficient and secure interoperability between
marketplaces of workflows. The investigators expect to demonstrate
that logistics in large projects (e.g., in construction and aerospace)
would benefit from the concept of Federation of Workflow Trading
Systems, with dramatic cost reduction of project management, material
supplies and purchasing processes.
Current Status
The project ANAISOFT started January 1, 2000 and will last until
December 31,2001. A first kick-off meeting has taken place and the
details of the to be worked at areas and cooperations are under way.
Project Partners
ETH Zürich, TIK:
University of Geneva, CUI:
University of Bern, IAM:
EPF Lausanne, LEM:
University of Zürich, IFI:
Etat de Vaud, Département des Infrastructures:
SER Systeme A.G.
TheNet - Internet Services AG
Documents
Currently, there is a number of documents available publically. As soon
as they will increase in content and number, you will find them here.
Further Information
A number of interesting links concerned with the ANAISOFT technical
environment will be complied at this point.
A related Swiss project: Charging and Accounting Technology
for the Internet (CATI).
Project Management
Inquiries may be directed to the local Swiss project management:
Dr. Jarle Hulaas
CUI, University of Geneva
24 Rue du General Dufour
1211 Geneva 4
Switzerland
E-Mail: jarle.hulass@cui.unige.ch
Phone: +41 22 705 7643
FAX: +41 22 705 7780
Further inquiries on the TIK and its work may be directed to:
Prof. Dr. Burkhard Stiller
TIK, ETH Zürich
Gloriastrasse 35
CH-8092 Zürich
Switzerland
E-Mail: stiller@tik.ee.ethz.ch
Phone: +41 1 632 7016
FAX: +41 1 632 1035
Last modified: Tue Jan 30 12:50:05 MET 2001