DELIS: Dynamically Evolving, Large Scale Information Systems

DELIS is an Integrated European Project (IST-001907) founded by the "Complex Systems" Proactive Initiative within the Sixth Framework Programme. Information Systems like the physical Internet, the World Wide Web, telephone networks, mobile ad-hoc networks, or peer-to-peer networks have reached a level that puts them beyond our ability to deploy them, manage them, and keep them functioning correctly through traditional techniques. Reasons for this are their sheer size with millions of users and interconnected devices and their dynamics; they evolve dynamically over time, i.e., components change or are removed or inserted permanently. For such systems, we have to abandon the goal of global optimality. Within DELIS, we therefore concentrate on developing self-regulating and self-repairing mechanisms that, on the one hand, are decentralized, scalable, and adapt to changes in their environments.