Autonomic Protocol-based Coordination in Dynamic Inter-Organizational Workflow

Wassim Bouaziz (1) , Éric Andonoff (2, 3)

1 Sogeti (FRANCE)
2 IRIT-SMAC - Systèmes Multi-Agents Coopératifs
3 UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole

Given the maturity of Internet standards, inter-organizational workflow is expected to be deployed in environments that are more dynamic and open than before. This paper addresses Inter Organizational Workflow (IOW) coordination in such a context, mainly investigating autonomic coordination managed at run-time. It is based on the idea that an agent-based approach is suitable to deal with this issue. More precisely, this paper introduces a framework for dynamic IOW in which involved processes are encapsulated into agents, called Process Agents (PA) in order to give them the capability to autonomously decide with whom, when and how to cooperate, and in which involved processes can access protocol components for their coordination needs. Our approach is based on the capability of PAs in playing different coordination protocols in order to take part in new business opportunities. This solution has numerous advantages. First, it provides extendable and reusable coordination components. Then, it supports run-time protocol integration. Finally, it eases openness since it imposes very few constraints.

Mots clés: Agent protocol; Autonomic coordination; Dynamic inter-organizational workflow

Domaines: Système multi-agents [cs.MA]

Wassim Bouaziz, Éric Andonoff. Autonomic Protocol-based Coordination in Dynamic Inter-Organizational Workflow. 7th IEEE International Conference on Research Challenge in Information Science (RCIS 2013), May 2013, Paris, France. pp. 555-566. ⟨hal-01233227⟩