Skip to main content

MEMS: A Method for Evaluating Middleware Architectures

  • Conference paper
Quality of Software Architectures (QoSA 2006)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 4214))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Middleware architectures play a crucial role in determining the overall quality of many distributed applications. Systematic evaluation methods for middleware architectures are therefore important to thoroughly assess the impact of design decisions on quality goals. This paper presents MEMS, a scenario-based evaluation approach. MEMS provides a principled way of evaluating middleware architectures by leveraging generic qualitative and quantitative evaluation techniques such as prototyping, testing, rating, and analysis. It measures middleware architectures by rating multiple quality attributes, and the outputs aid the determination of the suitability of alternative middleware architectures to meet an application’s quality goals. MEMS also benefits middleware development by uncovering potential problems at early stage, making it cheaper and quicker to fix design problems. The paper describes a case study to evaluate the security architecture of grid middleware architectures for managing secure conversations and access control. The results demonstrate the practical utility of MEMS for evaluating middleware architectures for multiple quality attributes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Ali Babar, M., Gorton, I.: Comparison of Scenario-Based Software Architecture Evaluation Methods. In: 11th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference, pp. 600–607 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Barbacci, M., Klein, M.H., Longstaff, T.A., Weinstock, C.B.: Quality Attributes, Technical report, CMU/SEI-95-TR-021 (1995), http://www.sei.cmu.edu/publications/documents/95.reports/95.tr.021.html

  3. Bass, L., Clements, P., Kazman, R.: Software Architecture in Practice, 2nd edn. SEI Series. Addison-Wesley, Reading (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bass, L., John, B.E., Kates, J.: Achieving usability through software architecture, Technical Report, CMU/SEI-2001-TR-005, http://www.sei.cmu.edu/publications/documents/01.reports/01tr005.html

  5. Boehm, B., In, H.: Identifying Quality-Requirement Conflicts. IEEE Software 13(2), 25–35 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Cecchet, E., Marguerite, J., Zwaenepoel, W.: Performance and scalability of EJB applications. In: ACM Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages and Applications (Oopsla 2002) (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Cronbach, L.J.: Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika 16, 297–333 (1951)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Dobrica, L., Niemela, E.: A Survey on Software Architecture Analysis Methods. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 28(7) (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Foster, I.: Service-oriented science. Science 308(5723), 814–817 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Foster, I., Kesselman, C., Tuecke, S.: The Anatomy of the Grid: Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations. In: Sakellariou, R., Keane, J.A., Gurd, J.R., Freeman, L. (eds.) Euro-Par 2001. LNCS, vol. 2150, p. 1. Springer, Heidelberg (2001)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Gorton, I., Liu, A., Brebner, P.: Rigorous Evaluation of COTS Middleware Technology. IEEE Computer 36(3), 50–55 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Globus Toolkit, http://www.globus.org/

  13. Gwet, K.: Handbook of Inter-Rater Reliability, STATAXIS Publishing Company, ISBN, 0970806205

    Google Scholar 

  14. Harmer, T., Stell, A., McBride, D.: UK Engineering Task Force Globus Toolkit Version 4 Middleware Evaluation, UK Technical Report UKeS-2005-03 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  15. http://www.nesc.ac.uk/technical_papers/UKeS-2005-03.pdf

  16. Lawlor, B., Vu, L.: A Survey of Techniques for Security Architecture Analysis, Science and Technical Report, DSTO-TR-1438 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Nord, R.L., Tomayko, J.E.: Software Architecture-Centric Methods and Agile Development. IEEE Software 23(2), 47–53 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Liu, A., Gorton, I.: Accelerating COTS Middleware Acquisition: The i-Mate Process. IEEE Software 20(2), 72–79 (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Liu, Y., Gorton, I., Abanmi, S., Hoang, C.: A secure configuration manager for adaptive server framework, NICTA Summer Scholarship Project Proposal (November 2005)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Jogalekar, P., Woodside, M.: Evaluating the Scalability of Distributed Systems. IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems 11(6), 589–603 (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Kanoun, K., Kaaniche, M., Laprie, J.C.: Qualitative and Quantitative Reliability Assessment. IEEE Software, 77–87 (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Kontio, J.: A Case Study in Applying a Systematic Method for COTS Selection. In: Proc. 18th Int’l. Conf. Software Eng., IEEE CS Press, Los Alamitos (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Nord, R.L., Tomayko, J.E.: Software Architecture-Centric Methods and Agile Development. IEEE Software 23(2), 47–53 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Smith, C.U., Willams, L.G.: Performance Engineering of CORBA-based Distributed Systems with SPE·ED. In: Computer Performance Evaluation Modelling Techniques and Tools. LNCS. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Sotomayor, B., Childers, L.: Globus Toolkit 4: Programming Java Services, written by Borja Sotomayor and Lisa Childers. Elsevier, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  26. Tang, D., Kumar, D., Duvur, S., Torbjornsen, O.: Availability measurement and modeling for an application server. In: International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, pp. 669–678 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Liu, Y., Gorton, I., Bass, L., Hoang, C., Abanmi, S. (2006). MEMS: A Method for Evaluating Middleware Architectures. In: Hofmeister, C., Crnkovic, I., Reussner, R. (eds) Quality of Software Architectures. QoSA 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4214. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11921998_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11921998_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-48819-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48820-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics