Ponder2

Ponder2 combines a general-purpose, distributed object management system with a Domain Service, Obligation Policy Interpreter, Command Interpreter and Authorisation Enforcement. The Domain Service provides an hierarchical structure for managing objects. The Obligation Policy Interpreter handles Event, Condition, Action rules (ECA). The Command Interpreter accepts a set of commands, compiled from a high-level language called PonderTalk, via a number of communications interfaces which may perform invocations on a ManagedObject registered in the Domain Service. The Authorisation Enforcement caters for both positive and negative authorisation policies, provides the ability to specify fine grained authorisations for every object and implements domain nesting algorithms for conflict resolution.

Ponder is the name of a policy specification language developed at Imperial College over a number of years. A set of tools and services were developed for the specification, analysis and enforcement of these policies. Thus, the name Ponder became associated not only with the language but with the entire toolkit. Ponder2 is a significant re-design and re-implementation of Ponder. Although some of the underlying concepts bear similarity to the basic constructs of Ponder the entire framework has been re-done. In contrast to the previous version, which was designed for general network and systems management, Ponder2 has been designed as an entirely extensible framework that can be used at different levels of scale from small, embedded devices to complex services and Virtual Organisations.

Ponder2 has been realised with financial support from several sponsors.

Documentation

The following documents will assist you in downloading, installing and running Ponder2.

API Documentation

These documents are give detailed documentation of the PonderTalk interface to the standard Ponder2 Managed Objects in PonderDoc format and to the internal Java classes in JavaDoc format.

Ponder2-Based Systems

Software/Downloads

There are several downloads with different configurations of Ponder2 available.

This software is made available under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.

Tutorials

The following documents contain the current tutorial for learning about Ponder2 by yourself. There are also copies of presentation tutorials given at various conferences in the past.

Publications

Contact Information

This site and the Ponder2 software have been created and are maintained by Dr Kevin Twidle.

For information regarding Ponder2 please email <ponder2 AT doc DOT ic DOT ac DOT uk>.

Ponder2Project (last edited 2013-11-25 18:22:14 by KevinTwidle)