Creating reference architectures: an example from avionics

ABSTRACT

ADAGE is a project to define and build a domain-specific software architecture (DSSA) environment for assisting the development of avionics software. A central concept of DSSA is the use of software system generators to implement component-based models of software synthesis in the target domain [SEI90].In this paper, we present the ADAGE component-based model (or reference architecture) for avionics software synthesis. We explain the modeling procedures used, review our initial goals, show how component reuse is achieved, and examine what we were (and were not) able to accomplish. The contributions of our paper are the avionics reference architecture and the lessons that we learned; both may be beneficial to others in future modeling efforts.

REFERENCES

• Ara93: Guillermo Arango. Domain analysis methods. In Software Reusability, W. Schafer and R.Prieto-Diaz, editors, Ellis Horwood Publishers, 1993.
• Bat88: D. S. Batory, Concepts for a database system compiler, Proceedings of the seventh ACM SIGACT-SIGMOD-SIGART symposium on Principles of database systems, p.184-192, March 1988, Austin, Texas, United States [doi>10.1145/308386.308435]
• Bat92a: Don Batory , Sean O'Malley, The design and implementation of hierarchical software systems with reusable components, ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), v.1 n.4, p.355-398, Oct. 1992 [doi>10.1145/136586.136587]
• Bat92b: D. Batory and J. Barnett, "DATE: The Genesis DBMS Software Layout Editor", in Conceptual Modeling, Databases, and CASE: An Integrated View of Information Systems Development, P. Loucopoulos and R. Zicari, editors, Wiley, 1992.
• Bat93a: D. Batory and S. Shafer, "A Domain Model for Avionics Software", IBM Owego T.R. ADAGE-~UT-93- 03, May 1993.
• Bat93b: Don Batory , Vivek Singhal , Marty Sirkin , Jeff Thomas, Scalable software libraries, Proceedings of the 1st ACM SIGSOFT symposium on Foundations of software engineering, p.191-199, December 08-10, 1993, Los Angeles, California, United States
• Bat94: Don Batory , Jeff Thomas , Marty Sirkin, Reengineering a complex application using a scalable data structure compiler, Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGSOFT symposium on Foundations of software engineering, p.111-120, December 06-09, 1994, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
• Bat95: Don S. Batory , Bart J. Geraci, Validating Component Compositions in Software System Generators, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 1995
• Bri81: Kathryn Heninger Britton , R. Alan Parker , David L. Parnas, A procedure for designing abstract interfaces for device interface modules, Proceedings of the 5th international conference on Software engineering, p.195-204, March 09-12, 1981, San Diego, California, United States
• Cog92: Lou Coglianese, et al., "An Avionics Domain- Specific Software Architecture," ARPA PI Conference, 1992. Also in CrossTalk, October 1992, and IBM Owego T.R. ADAGE-IBM-92-07, April 1992.
• Cog93: L. Coglianese and R. Szymanski, "DSSA- ADAGE: An Environment for Architecture-based Avionics Development", Proceedings of AGARD 1993. Also, IBM Owego T.R. ADAGE-IBM-93-04, May 1993.
• Cur88: Bill Curtis , Herb Krasner , Neil Iscoe, A field study of the software design process for large systems, Communications of the ACM, v.31 n.11, p.1268-1287, Nov. 1988 [doi>10.1145/50087.50089]
• Gar95: David Garlan , Robert Allen , John Ockerbloom, Architectural mismatch or why it's hard to build systems out of existing parts, Proceedings of the 17th international conference on Software engineering, p.179-185, April 24-28, 1995, Seattle, Washington, United States [doi>10.1145/225014.225031]
• Gog86: A Joseph Goguen, Reusing and interconnecting software components, Computer, v.19 n.2, p.16-27, Feb. 1986 [doi>10.1109/MC.1986.1663146]
• Goo92a: M. Goodwin and L. Coglianese, "Dictionary for the Avionics Domain Architecture Generation Environment of the Domain-Specific Software Architecture Project", ADAGE-IBM-92-04.
• Goo92b: M. Goodwin and M. Kushner, "Domain Analysis for the Avionics Domain Architecture Generation Environment of Domain Specific Software Architecture", ADAGE-IBM-92-11, November 1992.
• Haa90: L. M. Haas , W. Chang , G. M. Lohman , J. McPherson , P. F. Wilms , G. Lapis , B. Lindsay , H. Pirahesh , M. J. Carey , E. Shekita, Starburst Mid-Flight: As the Dust Clears, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, v.2 n.1, p.143-160, March 1990 [doi>10.1109/69.50910]
• Hab78: A. Habermann, "Modularization and Hierarchy in a Family of Operating Systems", Carnegie Mellon University Tech. Report CS-78-101, February 1978.
• Hei90: J. Heidemann and G. Popek, "An Extensible, Stackable Method of File System Development", TR CSD-910007, UCLA, December 1990.
• Hut91: Norman C. Hutchinson , Larry L. Peterson, The X-Kernel: An Architecture for Implementing Network Protocols, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.17 n.1, p.64-76, January 1991 [doi>10.1109/32.67579]
• Luc85: D. Luckham and F. von Henke, "An Overview of ANNA, a Specification Language for ADA", IEEE Software, March 1985.
• McA93: D. McAllester, "DSSA-ADAGE Avionics/Architecture Knowledge Representation Language (Draft Report), ADAGE-MIT-93-01, 1993.
• Par76: D.L. Parnas, "On the Design and Development of Program Families", IEEE Trans. Software Engineering, March 1976.
• Tra93: W.Tracz,"LILEANNA: A Parameterized Programming Language", Proc. 2nd International Workshop on Software Reuse, March 1993.
• Sir93: Marty Sirkin , Don Batory , Vivek Singhal, Software components in a data structure precompiler, Proceedings of the 15th international conference on Software Engineering, p.437-446, May 17-21, 1993, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
• SEI90: Software Engineering Institute, Proc. Workshop on Domain-Specific Software Architectures, Hidden-Valley, Pennsylvania, 1990.
• War92: S. Wartik and R. Prieto-Diaz, "Criteria for Comparing Reuse-Oriented Domain Analysis Approaches", International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, September 1992.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  J. Computer Applications
  J.2 PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING
      Subjects: Aerospace

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

General Terms:
Languages, Theory