Systems of Systems
Teknik Naturvetenskap
Wang Yi
2011-09-02 12:02, reviderat 2011-09-02 12:10
"Systems of systems" are large, complex systems composed from
heterogeneous components or sub-systems of substantial size. Usually,
Systems of systems are distributed and consist of a multitude of
individual computers, sensors, or acting components, which may have
been developed by various vendors on a variety of platforms and for a
variety of applications. In addition, the individual system components
contain large amounts of software, such as applications, drivers and
firmware, and operating systems, which may have been developed by a
large number of people over many years.
The Swedish Industry has a long tradition of building Systems of
systems, among others telephone exchanges, cars, industrial robots, or
power grid components. Development, quality assurance, and maintenance
of Systems of systems, with respect to both hardware and software,
represent a significant technical challenge and one of the biggest
expenses faced by the Swedish IT industry. This is caused by the fact
that current methods and technologies are simply not adequate to
handle today's networked systems: techniques that work well for
individual computers or embedded systems break down when confronted
with the complex interactions and inter-dependencies routinely
occurring in Systems of systems. This problem will become
significantly more pressing in the near future, due to the growing
complexity of Systems of systems, and due to the trend of creating
networks of systems that previously used to be isolated.
When building Systems of systems, it is important that individual
components are of high quality, that their functionality can be
adequately modelled, specified, and assessed, and that integration and
maintenance activities can be performed with reasonable effort. In
order to support cost-efficient system integration, a range of new
technologies is required, including appropriate modelling approaches
that scale to the complexity of today's and tomorrow's Systems of
systems, development processes that are tailored to large distributed
systems, methodologies to ensure the consistency and reliability of
evolving distributed software components over their whole lifetime,
and testing and verification approaches that are suitable for complex
and heterogeneous Systems of systems.
The importance of Systems of systems has internationally been
recognised in the past years, and is addressed, among others, by
large-scale research programmes on cyber-physical systems in the USA,
and on the Internet-of-Things in China where in 2011, as an indication
over 40 new education programs and serveral large research programmes
supported by the government were started in the area.
Considering the importance of the IT industry for the Swedish
economy as a whole, it is crucial that the Swedish industry, in
collaboration with academia, is enabled to keep up with this international
competition.
(Written by Philipp Ruemmer and Wang Yi)
Inga kommentarer inlagda.
Fasen är stängd, inte möjligt att kommentera.