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Continuous Workflows: From Model to Enactment System

Neophytou, Panayiotis (2013) Continuous Workflows: From Model to Enactment System. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Workflows are actively being used in both business and scientific domains to automate processes and facilitate collaboration. A workflow management (or enactment) system (WfMS) defines, creates and manages the execution of workflows on one or more workflow engines, which are able to interpret workflow definitions, allocate resources, interact with workflow participants and, where required, invoke the needed tools (e.g., databases, job schedulers, etc.) and applications. Traditional WfMSs and workflow design processes view the workflow as a one-time interaction with the various data sources, i.e., when a workflow is invoked, its steps are executed once and in-order. The fundamental underlying assumption has been that data sources are passive and all interactions are structured along the request/reply (query) model. Hence, traditional WfMS cannot effectively support business or scientific monitoring applications that require the processing of data streams such as those generated by sensing devices as well as mobile and web applications.

It is the hypothesis of this dissertation that Workflow Management Systems can be extended to support data stream semantics to enable monitoring applications. This includes the ability to apply flexible bounds on unbounded data streams and the ability to facilitate on-the-fly processing of bounded bundles of data (window semantics). To support this hypothesis this dissertation has produced new specifications, a design, an implementation and a thorough evaluation of a novel Continuous Workflows (CWf) model, which is backwards compatible with currently available workflow models. The CWf model was implemented in a CONtinuous workFLow ExeCution Engine, CONFLuEnCE, as an extension of Kepler, which is a popular scientific WfMS. The applicability of the CWf model in both scientific and business applications was demonstrated by utilizing CONFLuEnCE in Astroshelf to support live annotations (i.e., monitoring of astronomical data), and to support supply chain monitoring and management. The implementation of CONFLuEnCE led to the realization that different applications have different performance requirements and hence an integrated workflow scheduling framework is essential. Towards meeting this need, STAFiLOS, a Stream FLOw Scheduling framework for Continuous Workflows, was designed and implemented, within CONFLuEnCE. The performance of STAFiLOS was evaluated using the Linear Road Benchmark for continuous workflows.


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Details

Item Type: University of Pittsburgh ETD
Status: Unpublished
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
Neophytou, Panayiotispanickos@gmail.com
ETD Committee:
TitleMemberEmail AddressPitt UsernameORCID
Committee ChairChrysanthis, Panos Kpanos@cs.pitt.eduPANOS
Committee ChairLabrinidis, Alexandroslabrinid@cs.pitt.eduLABRINID
Committee MemberPruhs, Kirkkirk@cs.pitt.eduKRP2
Committee MemberPu, Caltoncalton.pu@cc.gatech.edu
Date: 1 July 2013
Date Type: Publication
Defense Date: 17 December 2012
Approval Date: 1 July 2013
Submission Date: 19 April 2013
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Number of Pages: 107
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Computer Science
Degree: PhD - Doctor of Philosophy
Thesis Type: Doctoral Dissertation
Refereed: Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords: Continuous Workflows, Data Stream Processing, Event processing, Workflow Patterns, Workflow Scheduling, Workflow Management Systems
Related URLs:
Date Deposited: 01 Jul 2013 17:50
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2016 14:12
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18533

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