Middleware Platform for a Biologically-inspired Architecture Supporting Autonomous and Adaptive Network Applications

This paper describes and empirically evaluates the middleware platform in a new network architecture called the Bio-Networking Architecture. The Bio-Networking Architecture is inspired by the observation that the biological systems (e.g. bee colonies) have already developed mechanisms necessary to achieve future network requirements such as autonomy, scalability, adaptability, and simplicity. In the Bio-Networking Architecture, a network application is implemented as a group of distributed, autonomous and diverse objects called cyber-entities (CEs) (analogous to a bee colony consisting of multiple bees). Each CE implements a functional service related to the application and follows simple behaviors similar to biological entities (e.g. reproduction and migration). In the Bio-Networking Architecture, application functionality emerges from the collaborative execution of services carried by CEs, and beneficial application characteristics (e.g. autonomy, scalability, adaptability and simplicity) arise from the simple and diverse behaviors among CEs and from the autonomous interaction of individual CEs. The middleware platform in the Bio-Networking Architecture, called the bionet platform, provides reusable software components for developing, deploying and executing CEs. The components abstract low-level operating and networking details, and implement high-level runtime services that CEs use to perform their services and behaviors. The components are designed based on several biological mechanisms (e.g. energy exchange and pheromone emission). This paper describes key designs of the bionet platform and empirically demonstrates that the bionet platform is efficient, scalable, reusable, and significantly simplifies development of network applications.