The Internal-Local-Remote Dependency Model for Generic Coordination in Distributed Collaboration Sessions

Abstract

This paper considers Distributed Collaboration Sessions (DCS) where distributed users interact through multi-component communicating applications. The paper develops a formal framework that identifies the dependency relationships and the associated coordination rules that should be considered in controlling and managing the interactions between the actors of DCS including software components and human users. Components of the same application are associated with the same category. The users constitute a unique category of actors. We identify three classes of dependency relationships: (1) internal dependency relationship dealing with constraints related to the intra-actor level. (2) local dependency relationship dealing with constrains related to the intra-site level. (3) remote dependency relationship dealing with constraints related to the intra-category level. These three relationship classes are then applied to define dependency management laws for session management including controlling state change, communication scope, role distribution and group membership. Building the multi-actors interdependencies management rules is achieved by composing elementary dependencies relationships that we express as first order logic formula.