AEM: availability enhancing middleware-a prototype for enhancing the availability of software applications

This paper addresses the problem of enhancing the availability of software applications in provider networks. The work results from a research cooperation between the Universitat der Bundeswehr Munchen and the Siemens AG (Information & Communication Networks), Munchen. We propose an AEM-architecture based on actively monitoring the behavior of applications at run-time in order to be able to evaluate their availability and to protect them from each other's faulty behavior. The purpose of our approach is also to maximize the availability of a network node and the whole network using application migration policies. We propose abstractions that promote the dependability in the early phases of software development, too. The focus of this paper will be in sketching our prototypical implementation, which allowed us to verify the feasibility of some of the main concepts of our AEM-architectural proposal.