The ACS (Ambient Control Space) is the internal of an Ambient Network. It has the functions that can be accessed and it is in full control of the resources of the network. The Ambient Networks infrasturcture does not deal with nodes, instead it deals with networks, though at the beginning, all the "networks" might only consist of just one node: these "networks" need to merge in order to form a network in the original sense of the word. A composition establishment consists of the negotiation and then the realization of a Composition Agreement. This merging can happen be fully automatic. The decision to merge or not is decided using pre-configured policies.
There are three interfaces present to communicate with an ACS. These are:
- ANI: Ambient Network Interface. If a network wants to join in, it has to do so through this interface.
- ASI: Ambient Service Interface. If a function needs to be accessed inside the ACS, this Interface is used.
- ARI: Ambient Resource Interface. If a resource inside a network needs to be accessed (e.g. the volume of the traffic), this interface is used.
Interfaces are used in order to hide the internal structures of the underlying network.
If two networks meet, and decide to merge, a new ACS will be formed of the two (though the two networks will have their own ACS along with the interfaces inside this global, new ACS). The newly composed ACS will of course have its own ANI, ASI and ARI, and will use these interfaces in order to merge with other Ambient Networks. Other options for composition are to not merge the two Ambient Networks (Network Interworking) or to establish a new virtual ACS that exercises joint control over a given set of shared resources (Control Sharing).
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