Specifying and analyzing dynamic software architectures

Abstract

A critical issue for complex component-based systems design is the modeling and analysis of architecture. One of the complicating factors in developing architectural models is accounting for systems whose architecture changes dynamically (during run time). This is because dynamic changes to architectural structure may interact in subtle ways with on-going computations of the system.

In this paper we argue that it is possible and valuable to provide a modeling approach that accounts for the interactions between architectural reconfiguration and non-reconfiguration system functionality, while maintaining a separation of concerns between these two aspects of a system. The key to the approach is to use a uniform notation and semantic base for both reconfiguration and steady-state behavior, while at the same time providing syntactic separation between the two. As we will show, this permits us to view the architecture in terms of a set of possible architectural snapshots, each with its own steady-state behavior. Transitions between these snapshots are accounted for by special reconfiguration-triggering events.

Research sponsored by the INRIA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and Rome Laboratory, Air Force Materiel Command, USAF, under agreement number F30602-97-2-0031, and by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CCR-9357792. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Governmental purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation thereon.

The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of INRIA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Rome Laboratory, or the U.S. Government.

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