Applying algebraic approaches for modeling workflows and their transformations in mobile networks

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Bottoni, Paolo | De Rosa, Fabio | Hoffmann, Kathrin | Mecella, Massimo

Affiliations: Universitàdi Roma "La Sapienza", Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica, Rome, Italy. E-mail: {bottoni, derosa}@di.uniroma1.it; mecella@dis.uniroma1.it | Technische Universität Berlin, Institut für Softwaretechnik und Theoretische Informatik, Berlin, Germany. E-mail: hoffmann@cs.tu-berlin.de

Abstract: In emergency scenarios we can obtain a more effective coordination among team members, each of them equipped with hand-held devices, through the use of workflow management software. Team members constitute a Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET), whose topology both influences and is influenced by the workflow. In this paper we propose an algebraic approach for modeling workflow progress as well as its modifications as required by topology transformations. The approach is based on Algebraic Higher-Order Nets and sees both workflows and topologies as tokens, allowing their concurrent modification.

Keywords: Mobile Ad-hoc NETworks (MANETs), adaptive workflow management, algebraic approaches

Journal: Mobile Information Systems, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 51-76, 2006