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Paranet Concepts Overview

As an overlay, by definition, the Paranet shares the infrastructure of the underlying IP network—the universal Internet and/or private IP networks. It is implemented as a layer 8 protocol above the OSI Application layer 7 (gRPC, HTTP/2) on the IT side. It can cross the IT and OT realms where OT protocols (e.g., Modbus) operate as normal but are subprotocols. Subprotocols are not covered here.

Developers create paranets. For each paranet they create nodes that they add to their paranets. Each node is a computation unit with the semantics of the actor skills on it. Actors are added to nodes to give the nodes context to their paranets. Some actors are programmed in Paraflow to orchestrate. Every paranet will have one or more orchestrator actors. Some actors are wrappers to python or JavaScript code. For wrapper actors that “actorize” other languages, there may be no work to do other than to run the Paraflow skills translator to create an actor of that underlying wrapped code. In effect, functions become remote procedure calls known as “skills” in the layer 8 network. Any actor can become autonomous because it can both implement a plan with goals and respond to skill requests remotely. Key to this is that their autonomous nature as actors allows them to be dormant (lambda like) on their nodes without taking cycles until requested upon or when they need to do their next task. This allows actors to have long running workflows without burning cycles on the underlying node. If power to a node is lost or it crashes, the workflows recover due to their persistent nature.

Once skills are published to a node, other nodes can discover them and vice versa. The more skills on the network the greater the intelligence (or capability) of the underlying paranet and the greater diversity of collaboration that happens between heterogeneous actors types (robots, human, software, etc.)

The following terms and definitions are the primary concepts to autonomous programming on the Paranet.

Core Concepts​​

The Paranet ecosystem is built around several interconnected concepts, each detailed in its own documentation file:

  • Autonomy and Autonomation: Explores the process of making systems autonomous and the ten essential elements that define autonomy, supported by the Paranet's autonomation platform.
  • Paranet Node Architecture: Describes the structure and components of a Paranet node, the fundamental unit hosting actors and enabling network operations.
  • Actors: Defines the entities capable of autonomous action within the Paranet, including their characteristics and roles in the network.
  • Paraflow - A New Paradigm Language: Introduces Paraflow, a language designed for autonomy, enabling actors to plan, reason, and execute tasks effectively.
  • Skill Definitions and Matching: Details how skills are defined and dynamically matched to actors, facilitating capability-based collaboration.
  • Paranet Collaboration Protocol (PnCP): Explains the protocol governing actor communication, supporting flexible and secure interactions.
  • Paranet Distributed Actor Operating System: Outlines how the Paranet functions as a distributed OS, managing resources and orchestration for autonomous actors.
  • Distributed Intelligence: Discusses the collective intelligence emerging from actor interactions, emphasizing semantic relevance over location-based communication.
  • Extensibility and Observational Intelligence: Highlights the Paranet's ability to evolve and learn through extensible design and network observation.
  • Persistence: Covers how state and transaction data are maintained, ensuring continuity and learning in autonomous operations.
  • Security: Examines the Negative Trust Security (NTS) model, ensuring robust protection in a decentralized, autonomous network.

These concepts collectively enable the Paranet to bridge the IT/OT divide, support multi-vendor environments, and drive the future of autonomous systems across industries.

Terminology​​

This glossary defines key terms used throughout the Paranet documentation:

  • Autonomation: The process of making systems or devices autonomous, enabling them to operate with minimal human intervention.
  • Paranet: An Internet overlay designed to support distributed intelligence and autonomy, facilitating collaboration among autonomous actors.
  • Actor: Any entity capable of autonomous action, decision-making, or interaction within the Paranet. Actors can be software agents, hardware devices, or human users.
  • Skill: A specific capability or functionality that an actor can offer or request, defined by a subject and action pair.
  • PnCP (Paranet Collaboration Protocol): The protocol enabling actor-to-actor communication and collaboration based on skills.
  • Paraflow: A programming language designed specifically for autonomy, allowing actors to plan, reason, and execute tasks autonomously.
  • Node (Paranode): A computation abstraction that hosts actors and facilitates their interactions within the Paranet.
  • Affiliation: A formal relationship between nodes that allows them to recognize and interact with each other's actors based on trust and shared objectives.
  • NTS (Negative Trust Security): A security model that assumes no inherent trust and continuously verifies actor behavior to ensure network integrity.
  • PDNS (Paranet Domain Name Service): A service for provisioning and managing Paranet domains and names.
  • Transaction Ledger: An immutable record of all PnCP messages, used for auditing, learning, and maintaining state.
  • Skill Matcher: An algorithm within the Paranet Broker that matches skill requests to actors capable of fulfilling them.
  • Observation Engine: A component that allows actors to observe network messages, supporting monitoring and learning.

Next Steps​​

Explore each concept in detail through the linked documentation files to gain a comprehensive understanding of the Paranet's architecture and capabilities. This ecosystem is poised to redefine how autonomous systems operate, offering a scalable, secure, and adaptive framework for the Autonomous Internet.