A Tripartite Analytic Framework for Characterising Awareness and Self-Awareness in Autonomic Systems Research

Abstract

Autonomic systems exhibiting self-* properties are composed of inter-connected computational elements with increasingly sophisticated instrumentation for perception of the environment in which they are embedded. In realising these self-* properties, satisfying functional requirements, or meeting performance metrics, these components need to have, and are often said to display, some form of `awareness' and/or `self-awareness'. Rather than giving a specific definition of these terms, in this paper we propose instead a tripartite analytic framework to characterise and categorise forms of awareness and self-awareness in autonomic systems research. The three aspects are the level of `awareness' being addressed, the field of computer science in which the system has been developed, and the research themes being addressed. By applying the analytic framework to the articles in the online Awareness Magazine, and the collected opinions from the Awareness Research Agenda, we aim to promote knowledge transfer and scientific dialogue across research communities and disciplines, and promote a common agenda for awareness research.