On-line change mechanisms: the software architectural level

ABSTRACT

Our interest in the field of software architecture is focused on the application in technical systems, such as control systems. Our current research in this field is centered around a real-life case study, a control system for unmanned vehicles transporting containers on the "Maasvlakte" , an area in the ports of Rotterdam.Important issues in this control system are scalability, evolvability, and on-line change capacities.In this paper, we discuss two mechanisms for on-line change in the distributed control system for the Maasvlakte system, which we have implemented in Java. The software architecture we use is a configuration of distributed processes, communicating according to the subscription model. We will focus on the software architectural aspects of the mechanisms for on-line change. One of these mechanisms is associated with the decoupling of processes as a result of the subscription-based communication model. The other mechanism is based on the late-binding properties of Java.

REFERENCES

• 1: Robert Allen , David Garlan, Beyond definition/use: architectural interconnection, Proceedings of the workshop on Interface definition languages, p.35-45, August 1994, Portland, Oregon, United States
• 2: Maarten Boasson, Subscription as a Model for the Architecture of Embedded Systems, Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS '96), p.130, October 21-25, 1996
• 3: R.C.M. de Rooij. Subscription-based communication for distributed embedded java. In ASCI Conference, accepted for publication 1995.
• 4: O. Frieder and M.E. Segal. Dynamic program updating in a distributed computer system. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Software Maintenance, Phoenix, Arizona, October 1933.
• 5: David Garlan , Robert Allen , John Ockerbloom, Exploiting style in architectural design environments, Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGSOFT symposium on Foundations of software engineering, p.175-188, December 06-09, 1994, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
• 6: David Garlan , David Notkin, Formalizing Design Spaces: Implicit Invocation Mechanisms, Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium of VDM Europe on Formal Software Development-Volume I: Conference Contributions, p.31-44, October 21-25, 1991
• 7: Kaveh Moazami-Goudarzi , Jeff Kramer, Maintaining Node Consistency in the Face of Dynamic Change, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Configurable Distributed Systems, p.62, May 06-08, 1996
• 8: Jeff Kramer , Jeff Magee, The Evolving Philosophers Problem: Dynamic Change Management, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.16 n.11, p.1293-1306, November 1990 [doi>10.1109/32.60317]
• 9: Philippe Kruchten, The 4+1 View Model of Architecture, IEEE Software, v.12 n.6, p.42-50, November 1995 [doi>10.1109/52.469759]
• 10: Jeff Magee , Jeff Kramer, Dynamic structure in software architectures, Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGSOFT symposium on Foundations of software engineering, p.3-14, October 16-18, 1996, San Francisco, California, United States
• 11: Peyman Oreizy , Nenad Medvidovic , Richard N. Taylor, Architecture-based runtime software evolution, Proceedings of the 20th international conference on Software engineering, p.177-186, April 19-25, 1998, Kyoto, Japan
• 12: S.Stuurman. An implementation of a controller for unmanned lorries and its performance. Technical Report to appear, Faculty of Tech&al Mathematics and Informatics, Delft University of Technology, 1998.
• 13: J.A. Stankovic. Real-time and embedded systems. Group Report of the Real-Time Working Group of the IEEE Technical Committee on Real-Time Systems, at http://www-ccs.cs.umass.edu/sdcr/rt.ps, 1996.
• 14: Richard N. Taylor , Nenad Medvidovic , Kenneth M. Anderson , E. James Whitehead, Jr. , Jason E. Robbins , Kari A. Nies , Peyman Oreizy , Deborah L. Dubrow, A Component- and Message-Based Architectural Style for GUI Software, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.22 n.6, p.390-406, June 1996 [doi>10.1109/32.508313]
• 15: Bernard I. Witt , F. Terry Baker , Everett W. Merritt, Software Architecture and Design: Principles, Models, and Methods, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1993

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.3 Software Management
          Subjects: Software development

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Real-time and embedded systems

  J. Computer Applications
  J.7 COMPUTERS IN OTHER SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Command and control

General Terms:
Design, Performance, Theory