Carlos Manuel Rodrigues Machado Autonomic Ubiquitous Computing

3.2.1 Global View Perspective
The global view perspective is concerned with maintaining a high level functionality and
operation of the whole system. From a global view perspective the autonomic system capabilities
are:
• self-configuration that is achieved by defining high level goals, i.e., by specifying what
is considered necessary to be present on a required function. This means that it
needs to be able to install itself, based on what is available in the infrastructure that
can be used for that particular function. As an example, a higher goal can be the
detection of human presence in a particular room. The system self-configuration is
the ability to find the patterns in the data supplied by room embedded devices in
order to achieve that higher goal. The information can be supplied by a motion
detector or any other source that is related to activity in a room and the system must
be able to use it;
• self-healing is reached by retrieving the required information from other sources, and
still be able to operate even if it loses some of its effectiveness. In the example above
the healing is the ability of the system to continue to detect the human presence in
the room even when the motion detector fails. The system, for example, can use light
activity in order to carry on its normal operation;
• self-optimization is accomplished by constantly trying to get better and more reliable
information. This capability is similar to self-healing, differing in the fact that it wants
to improve the actions of the functions, in opposition to the self-healing that tries to
guarantee the operation of the function. In order to achieve this, it uses the high level
goals defined in the self-configuration. Still using the same example mentioned
above, the system selects the information that comes from the motion detector
because it is the most reliable source of activity in that particular room;
• self-protection which is necessary to assure that the information used is correct and
to verify the implication of the function results, i.e., the self-protection is the
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