Dependable information infrastructures as complex adaptive systems

Information infrastructures, such as the Internet and Computational Grids, have enabled a networked computing and communication environment. Although many organizations depend on network‐centric information operations to support critical missions, existing information infrastructures provide little guarantee of the dependability of network‐centric computing and communication. This paper discusses some problems with the dependability of existing information infrastructures, such as stateless or centralized resource management. A Complex Adaptive Systems approach to dependability of futuristic information infrastructures is then presented with emphasis on the detection of emergent states at the regional and global levels of these infrastructures, and the self‐synchronized control of such infrastructures in response to emergent states. The key concept underlying our control strategy at the regional or global level is that the two attributes of the Complex Adaptive System in a dynamic environment, accessibility to many states and sensitivity to small perturbation, present us with an opportunity to manipulate the system's dynamics. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng 6: 225–237, 2003