CiAN: A Workflow Engine for MANETs

The practice of using workflows to model complex activities in stable networks is commonplace and is supported by many commercially available workflow management systems (WfMSs). However, the use of workflows to model collaborative activities in mobile environments, while possible at the model level, has not gained traction due to the lack of a suitable WfMS for mobile networks and devices. This paper seeks to address this need. We present CiAN, a choreography-based workflow engine that is designed with MANETs in mind. We describe the design, architecture, and communication protocols used by CiAN as well as its implementation using Java. An evaluation of the communication protocol used to coordinate among various workflow participants across MANETs is also presented.