[agents] Three Forthcoming Agent Technology Standards from the OMG ‹ and in conjunction with FIPA

[James Odell]

Three Forthcoming Agent Technology Standards from the OMG ‹ and in
conjunction with FIPA

Globalization and changes in technology are causing today¹s market to be in
a state of constant flux. Companies that cannot adapt fast enough to thrive
in new markets will be left behind.  Agent technology is a primary enabler
to support the ever-increasing global interaction.  In response, many
companies are now building agent-based systems.
 
1. The UML Profile and Metamodel for Services (UPMS) from the OMG is the
first to employ agents.  UPMS proposes a SOA Modeling Language (SoaML) that
is based on a UML profile and metamodel for the design of services within a
service-oriented architecture.  (An interim revised submission can be
obtained from the OMG at http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/2008-09-05; the
final version of the standard will be adopted 12 December 2008.)
The SoaML focuses on the basic service modeling concepts, and the intention
is to use this as a foundation for further extensions both related to
integration with other OMG metamodels like BPDM and the upcoming BPMN 2.0,
as well as SBVR, OSM, ODM and others.  In addition, SoaML enable the use of
agents that can distribute functionality across a vast computing network,
where agents can be software agents, hardware agents, firmware agents,
robotic agents, human agents, and so on. .  Furthermore, these agents can
not only adapt to their environment but also evolve by learning from the
environment.  Such an approach prepares enterprises for an increasingly
complex marketplace and enables them to respond rapidly to change.
 

As a follow up, the OMG issued Request for Proposals (RFPs) that solicit
submissions for standards in two areas: agent technology and event
technology.

2. The Agent Metamodel and Profile (AMP) RFP
(http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/2008-09-05) , then,
   extends the SoaML standard and requests specifications that will achieve
the following:
·     Extend UML to support agent modeling capabilities that can aid in the
design of agent-based systems and
      emphasize how they will interact and collaborate.
·     Establish agent modeling best practices utilizing OMG technologies.
·     Clarify semantics concerned with modeling agents.
·     Enable agent model interchange between tools via XMI.
·     Optionally supports for Goal, P2P, and Cloud and Grid modeling by and
for agents.  (While these
      technologies are general in nature, agent-based approaches can be used
to support, enable and exploit
      these technologies in new and useful ways.)
·     Provide the foundation for a ³family² of agent-related RFPs in the
near future
.     Will employ and extend IEEE FIPA standards where appropriate.
 
3. The Event Metamodel and Profile (EMP) RFP
(http://www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/2008-09-15) requests a metamodel and
profile for extending UML with capabilities applicable to the sensing and
interpretation of events, such as monitoring, filtering, aggregation, and
correlation.
·     Treat events as observations of state, there is a need for a common
and standardized way to model events as
      first-class entity.
·     Developing a common terminology for the modeling of events.  This will
support interoperability among
      CEP systems, enable richer event classification, and facilitate
identification of event patterns and
      anomalous conditions.
·     Leveraging of existing OMG modeling technologies, namely UML, SysML
and MOF as much as possible for
      the modeling Events.
·     Enable event model interchange between tools via XMI.
 

The current IT architecture trend to Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is
helping to focus attention on both agent and event processing, because event
processing applications are nominally services, and both conventional SOA
and event processing require effective middleware solutions for control and
event messaging. Gartner analyst Roy Schulte has written, ³Enterprises will
need to sense and respond to events as they occur, rather than carrying out
predetermined processes developed using historical information².
Furthermore, many EMP and AMP submitters see synergistic possibilities in
the two submissions: handling and managing events is an important feature of
agent technology and employing agents to support and enable events is vital
for Complex Event Process (CEP).

If any of you wish to participate and contribute to either or both RFP,
please contact me.