Folded Interaction Systems and their application to the survivability analysis of unbounded systems

Modeling the fulfillment of global properties like survivability is a challenging problem in unbounded systems such as Grids, peer-to-peer systems, or swarms. This paper proposes Folded Interaction Systems (FIS), an extension of the classic I-Systems framework, to overcome the modeling issues. FIS is applied to a case of survivability assessment in Grids and demonstrates the identification of essential capabilities, the modeling of harmful incidents, and the derivation of standard strategies to sustain the survival of a system's mission. FIS is not restricted to survivability, it can be used for investigating the preservation of any global property.