The Transactions of the Korea Information Processing Society (한국정보처리학회논문지)

Korea Information Processing Society (한국정보처리학회)
권호 표지

Design of a Modbile Agent-based Workflow System

이동에이전트 기반 워크플로우 시스템의 설계

  • 서영호 (한국전자통신연구원 인터넷서비스연구부) ;
  • 유정준 (광주과학기술원 대학원) ;
  • 이동익 (광주과학기술원 정보통신학과)
  • Published : 2000.08.01
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

This paper proposes a new design strategy that can overcome limitations of two existing approaches, focusing on performance and scalability issues among various architectural issues which must be considered in designing workflow systems. In the proposed approach, we suggest to introduce 'delegation model' which corresponds to the high-level strategy utilizing the fundamental characteristics of mobile agents, after establishing a mobile agent-based workflow system architecture focused on performance and scalability. We point out three major issues that should be considered in this approach and propose a 3-tier mobile agent-based workflow system architecture that effectively reflects these considerations. Also, we show that the new approach can provide better performance and scalability than existing ones - approaches based on the client-server paradigm and other approaches based on mobile agent paradigm represented by DartFlow system - by evaluating performance of the proposed architecture through the GSPN simulation.

본 논문에서는 워크플로우 시스템이 갖추어야 할 다양한 구조적 요구 사항들 중에서 성능 및 확장성 이슈에 중점을 두어, 기존의 두 접근법들이 갖는 한계를 극복할 수 있는 새로운 구현전략을 제안한다. 새로운 접근법은 성능 및 확장성 촉진에 중점을 둔 이동에이전트 기반 아키텍쳐를 마련한 후에, 이동에이전트가 갖는 본질적인 특성을 이용한 상위수준의 전략인 ‘위임 모델을 도입하는 것이다. 여기서는, 이러한 접근법에서 고려해야 할 세 가지 주요 문제점들에 대한 해결방안을 수행하여 이들을 효과적으로 반영한 이동에이전트 기반 3-계층 워크플로우 시스템 아키텍쳐를 제안한다. 또한 제안된 아키텍쳐의 성능 및 확장성을 GSPN 시뮬레이션을 통해 기존의 두 접근법과 비교 분석함으로써, 제안한 방법이 워크플로우 시스템의 성능 및 확장성을 보장하기 위한 최적의 벙법임을 보인다.

Keywords

References

  1. WfMC, 'Workflow Management Coalition Terminology and Glossary', WfMC Specification, pp.8, 1996
  2. G. Alonso, D. Agrawal, A. el Abbadi, C. Mohan, 'Functionality and Limitations of Current Workflow Management Systems', Electron. Lett., pp.439-444 (1996)
  3. Petra Heinl, Hans Schuster, 'Towards a Highly Scaleable Architecture for Workflow Management Systems', Proc. 7th Int. Workshop on Database and Expert Systems Applications, pp.439-444, 1996 https://doi.org/10.1109/DEXA.1996.558591
  4. Gustavo Alonso, Hans-Jorg Schek, 'Database Technology in Workflow Environments', Applications, 1996
  5. Barbara, D., Mehrota, S., and Rusinkiewicz, M., 'INCAS : A Computation Model for Dynamic Workflows in Autonomous Distributed Environments', Technical report, Matsushita Information Technology Laboratory, 1994
  6. M. Rusinkiewicz and A. Sheth, 'Specification and Execution of Transactional Workflow', Modern Database Systems : The Object, Interoperability and Beyond, W. Kim(Ed.), Addison-Wesley, 1994
  7. 유정준, 서영호, 송상범, 이동익, '에이전트 기반 워크 플로우 시스템 구조 및 이동에이전트 요구사항', 한국정보처리학회 99 추계학술발표논문집, 1999
  8. M. Kamath, G. Alonso, G. Gunthor, and C. Mohan, 'Providing High Availability in Very Large Workflow Management Systems', Proc. EDBT '96, 1996
  9. 'FlowMark-Managing Your Workflow, Version 2.1', IBM, 1995
  10. 'COSA Reference Guide', Software-Ley GmbH, 1994
  11. G. Alonso, D. Agrawal, A. el Abbadi, C. Mohan, R. Gunthor, M. Kamath, 'Failure Handling in Large Scale Workflow Management Systems', IBM Research Report, 1994
  12. G. Alonso, D. Agrawal, A. el Abbadi, C. Mohan, R. Gunthor, M. Kamath, 'Exotica/FMQM : A Persistent Message-Based Architecture for Distributed Workflow Management', Proc. IEIP Working Conf, on Information Systems for Decentralized Organizations, 1995
  13. Miller, J. A., Sheth, A. P., Kochut, K. J., Wang, X., 'CORBA-Based Run-Time Architectures for Workflow Management Systems', Journal of Database Management, Special Issues on Multidatabases, Vol.7, 1996
  14. Ting Cai, Peter A. Gloor, Saurab Nog, 'DartFlow : A Workflow Management System on the Wep using Transportable Agents', DartMouth College, Technical Report PCS-TR96-283, 1996
  15. Luiz A.G.Oliveira, Paulo C.Oliveira, Eleri Cardozo, 'An Agent-Based Approach for Quality of Service Negotiation and Management in Distributed Multimedia Systems', Proc. First Int. Workshop, MA '97, 1997
  16. Manfred Dalmeijer, Eric Rietjens, Dieter Hammer, Ad Aerts, Michiel Soede, 'A Reliable Mobile Agents Architecture', Proc. of the Int. Symposium on Object-Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing(ISORC'98), 1998
  17. Ajmone Marsan M., Balbo G., Chiola G., Conte G., 'Generalized stochastic Petri nets revisited : Random switches and priorities', Proc. Int. Workshop on Petri Nets and Performance Models, pp.44-53, 1987
  18. W. M. P. van der Aalst, 'Three good reasons for using a Petri-net-based Workflow Management System', Proc. Int. Working Conference on Information and Process Integration in Enterprises(IPIC '96), 1996
  19. G. Chiola, 'Simulation Framework for Timed and Stochasic Petri Nets', Proc. International Journal in Computer Simulation, 1991