Adaptive middleware for autonomic systems

The increasingly dynamic nature of resource discovery and binding in modern largescale distributed and mobile systems poses significant challenges for existing middleware platforms. Future platforms must provide strong support for adaptive behaviour in order both to maintain and optimise services in the face of changing context. We use a survey of existing middleware systems to develop some core themes that characterise and constrain the ability of these approaches to support the development of adaptive and autonomic systems, and draw some possible trends for developing future platforms more appropriate to these domains.