Separating Crosscutting Concerns in Agent Oriented Detailed Design: The Social Patterns Case Carla Silva Jaelson Castro Advisor: Jaelson Castro João Araújo Co-Advisors: João Araújo and Patrícia Tedesco

2 Content Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

3 Agent Oriented Software Development Multi-agent systems (MAS) Problem 1: no consensus regarding MAS constructs Problem 2: no standard notation for MAS Responsibility_C1 Responsibility_C2 Responsibility_A1 Responsibility_A2 Responsibility_D1 Responsibility_D2 Responsibility_B1 Responsibility_B2 A B CD Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

4 Tropos Framework Tropos supports five phases of the software development lifecycle. Problem 3: no systematic process for detailed design > Early Requirements > Late Requirements > Architectural Design > Detailed Design > Implementation Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

5 Detailed Design Phase Additional detail to architectural components Reuse well-tested solutions to recurring problems  Social Patterns Ex.: Monitor, Broker, Matchmaker, Mediator, Embassy, Wrapper, Booking, Call-for-proposal, Subscription, Bidding  Patterns provide easy reuse of good software design Description_RespA_P1 Description_RespB_P1 P1 Description_RespA_P2 Description_RespB_P2 P2 Description_RespA_P3 Description_RespB_P3 P3 Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

6 Matchmaker Pattern Problem 4: no standard (and detailed) description of social patterns Problem 5: no guidelines to select social patterns Problem 6: no systematic way to apply social patterns Description of a Social Pattern Request Provider ID Register Yellow Pages Unregister Yellow Pages Locate Provider Matchmaker Request Registration Request Unregistration Client Provider Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

7 ResponsibilityA_P1 ResponsibilityB_P1 P1 ResponsibilityA_P2 ResponsibilityB_P2 P2 ResponsibilityA_P3 ResponsibilityB_P3 P3 Application of a Social Pattern to a MAS Responsibility_C1 Responsibility_C2 Responsibility_A1 Responsibility_A2 Responsibility_D1 Responsibility_D2 Responsibility_B1 Responsibility_B2 A B CD Pattern applied to the system Pattern DescriptionMulti-Agent System Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

8 Request Provider ID Register Yellow Pages Unregister Yellow Pages Locate Provider Matchmaker Request Registration Request Unregistration Client Provider Contact News Agencies Produce News Format News Article Reviews News Content Update Website Decompose Guideline Format Newspaper Editor Chief Editor Rep-Photo Webmaster Application of the Matchmaker Pattern to a MAS Pattern DescriptionMulti-Agent System Matchmaker Pattern Description Multi-Agent System Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

9 Application of an Social Pattern to a MAS Problem 7: Matchmaker Pattern concerns are crosscutting concerns  Scattering and tangling Low cohesion High coupling reusability Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

10 Motivation 1. No consensus regarding MAS constructs 2. No standard notation for MAS 3. No systematic process for detailed design 4. No standard (and detailed) description of social patterns 5. No guidelines to select social patterns 6. No systematic way to apply social patterns 7. Matchmaker Pattern concerns are crosscutting concerns Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

11 Proposal 1. Agency Metamodel 2. MAS Modeling Notation 3. Detailed Design Process 4. Agent Pattern Specifications 5. Heuristics to select Social Patterns 6. A technique to systematically apply Social patterns 7. Advanced separation of Social Patterns concerns Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

12 Agency metamodel Define some constructs to specify MAS  Intentional constructs Agent Role, Agent, Goal, Belief, Intention, Plan, Action, etc.  Interaction constructs Interaction Protocol, Communication Message, Agent Connector, Organizational Port, ACL, etc. Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

13 MAS modeling notation 2 behavioral diagrams  Communication diagram  Plan diagram 4 structural diagrams  Architectural diagram  Intentional diagram  Rational diagram  Environmental diagram Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

14 Detailed Design A step-by-step to guide the detailed design of MAS Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

15 Agent Pattern Specifications Specializes the agency metamodel by using model roles (France et al.) Whittle et al. and Araújo et al. uses model roles to address aspect modeling The APS technique comprises  A description template  An Structural Agent Pattern Specification  A Communication Agent Pattern Specification Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

16 The Template for a Pattern Description ElementDescription NameMatchmaker Pattern IntentTo locate a provider for a given service requested by a client and letting the client directly interact with the provider. ApplicabilityWhen an agent (client) needs to directly interact with another agent (provider) to use its services, but does not know what agent offers the desired service. Motivation Example A reporter agent needs to interact with a news agency to obtain news about a specific subject. The news agency to be contacted is going to be known at run time by any reporter agent. ProblemHow can clients locate unknown providers which offer a specific service? SolutionThe solution involves an intermediary agent (matchmaker) that receives requests from service providers to subscribe/unsubscribe its services into the yellow pages maintained by it. An agent (client) may need a specific service provided by an unknown agent (provider). The Matchmaker also receives requests from client agents to locate some provider agent which offers a specific service. If there is some provider for the requested service, the Matchmaker gives that provider’s identification to the client which, in its turn, can directly interact with it. ParticipantsThe Client requests the identification of an agent that provides a specific service. The Matchmaker finds the Provider of the requested service and gives its identification to the Client. The Provider must subscribe the Matchmaker yellow page service in order to be found by the clients requesting its services. Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

17 Matchmaker Structural Agent Pattern Specification Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

18 Matchmaker Structural Agent Pattern Specification Agent Role Dependum MacroPlan Goal Notes ComplexAction Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

19 Matchmaker Communication Agent Pattern Specification Agent Agent Role Message Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

20 Towards Implementation Guidelines to implement Social Patterns using an integration of JADE and AspectJ Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

21 Case Study Conference Management System Content Manager System, called e-News Content Manager System, called e-News Contact News Agencies Produce News Format News Article Reviews News Content Update Website Decompose Guideline Format Newspaper Editor Chief Editor Rep-Photo Webmaster Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

22 Architectural Diagram for e-News Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

23 Architectural Diagram for e-News Agent Role Dependum Goal ComplexAction MacroPlan Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

24 Selection of Social Patterns Some heuristics  Observe the system non-functional requirements (NFRs)  Analyze the patterns templates  Choose the social patterns which better address the NFRs Availability For example, Availability  The Matchmaker pattern helps to accomplish this NFR Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

25 Application of Social Patterns Systematic application  Bind Model Roles to Model Elements Pattern Description MAS Architectural Diagram Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

26 Pattern applied to MAS Client Concerns Provider Concerns Matchmaker Concerns Application Concerns Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

27 Contributions Agency metamodel  defines a set of concepts to specify MAS MAS modeling notation  can be used in other frameworks/methodologies besides Tropos  is supported by UML CASE tools Detailed design process  guidelines to map i* to MAS modeling notation  heuristics to select social patterns  systematic application of social patterns Standard technique to describe social patterns  more detailed description  promotes advanced separation of patterns concerns  guidelines to implement social patterns integration of JADE and AspectJ Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

28 Future Work Real case studies  MAS modeling notation  Heuristics to select social patterns  Description of social patterns Empirical evaluation  Social patterns implemented as aspects  Composition of social patterns Advanced Separation of Patterns Concerns CASE tool  Detailed Design Process Motivation Proposal Case Study Contributions Future Work

29 Publications 12 papers related to the thesis  1 paper  1 poster  1 chapter - SELMAS V LNCS (2007)  1 paper  1 paper - WASP’06  1 paper - SELMAS’04  1 paper - SELMAS’06  1 paper Forum Publications

Separating Crosscutting Concerns in Agent Oriented Detailed Design: The Social Patterns Case Carla Silva Jaelson Castro Advisor: Jaelson Castro João Araújo Co-Advisors: João Araújo and Patrícia Tedesco