Modifiable Artificial DNA - Change Your System’s ADNA at Any Time

The Artificial DNA (ADNA) and Artificial Hormone System (AHS) together form a middleware that uses Organic Computing techniques to improve the robustness and adaptability of distributed embedded systems. These systems then have the properties of self-organization, self-healing, self-configuration and self-improvement. However, the adaptability of the system is limited by the rigidity of the ADNA, since it cannot be modified at runtime. Recent research approaches already assume the existence of a modifiable ADNA in their applications without actually implementing it or evaluating its behavior. In this paper, we present two crucial steps to extend the ADNA with the ability to allow run-time modifications. First, we describe the possible modifications that can be made at runtime, and how they can be implemented without making significant changes to the ADNA implementation. Second, we provide an experimental evaluation of this new feature and contextualize its behavior within the framework of traditional ADNA.