Elsevier

Science of Computer Programming

Volume 110, 15 October 2015, Pages 78-103
Science of Computer Programming

Reasoning about software reconfigurations: The behavioural and structural perspectives

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scico.2015.05.013Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • An algebra of reconfigurations for software connectors.

  • Behavioural and structural perspectives to reason about reconfigurations.

  • A hybrid logic to investigate structural properties of connectors reconfigurations.

  • A case study on medical domain to show the applicability of the results.

Abstract

Software connectors encapsulate interaction patterns between services in complex, distributed service-oriented applications. Such patterns encode the interconnection between the architectural elements in a system, which is not necessarily fixed, but often evolves dynamically. This may happen in response to faults, degrading levels of QoS, new enforced requirements or the re-assessment of contextual conditions. To be able to characterise and reason about such changes became a major issue in the project of trustworthy software.

This paper discusses what reconfiguration means within coordination-based models of software design. In these models computation and interaction are kept separate: components and services interact anonymously through specific connectors encoding the coordination protocols. In such a setting, of which Reo is a paradigmatic illustration, the paper introduces a model for connector reconfigurations, from both a structural and a behavioural perspective.

Keywords

Software reconfiguration
Software architecture
Coordination
Reo

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