A design model for Open Distributed Processing systems

This paper proposes design concepts that allow the conception, understanding and development of complex technical structures for open distributed systems. The proposed concepts are related to, and partially motivated by, the present work on Open Distributed Processing (ODP). As opposed to the current ODP approach, the concepts are aimed at supporting a design trajectory with several, related abstraction levels. Simple examples are used to illustrate the proposed concepts

Semantic verification of Behavior Conformance

This paper introduces a formal yet practical method to verify whether the behavior design of a distributed application conforms to the behavior design of the enterprise in which the application is embedded. The method allows both enterprise architects and application architects to talk about designs in their own terms, and introduces a common set of terms as the linking pin between enterprise and application designs. The formal semantics of these common terms allows us to verify the conformance between an enterprise and its applications formally and automatically

Tele-education Process Modelling supported by the ODP Enterprise Viewpoint Language

This paper reports on applying the ODP enterprise viewpoint in the domain of tele-education. The work is conducted as part of a research activity that aims at designing a tele-education system to support planning, execution and evaluation of dynamic distributed educational processes. We explore the ODP enterprise viewpoint as a basis for communication and co-operation between educational scientists and ODP systems designers involved in the design process. Our application of the enterprise viewpoint involves four main steps. First, an educational language is proposed to describe educational processes in generic terms. Second, a set of appropriate enterprise language concepts is selected. Third, a relationship is established between the educational language and enterprise language concepts. Fourth, an educational process is modelled in terms of an entity-oriented model and a behaviour-oriented model. It is hoped that the experience gained in this exercise will provide useful feedback to both the educational and ODP communitie

On interoperability and conformance assessment in service composition

The process of composing a service from other services typically involves multiple models. These models may represent the service from distinct perspectives, e.g., to model the different roles of systems involved in the service, and at distinct abstraction levels, e.g., to model the service’s capability, interface or the orchestration that implements the service. The consistency among these models needs to be maintained in order to guarantee the correctness of the composition process. Two types of consistency relations are distinguished: interoperability, which concerns the ability of different roles to interoperate, and conformance, which concerns the correct implementation of an abstract model by a more concrete model. This paper discusses the need for and use of techniques to assess interoperability and conformance in a service composition process. The paper shows how these consistency relations can be described and analysed using concepts from the COSMO framework. Examples are presented to illustrate how interoperability and conformance can be assessed

Semantic Service Modeling: Enabling System Interoperability.

Interoperability is the capability of different systems to use each other’s services effectively. It is about sharing functionality and information between systems at different levels, e.g., between physical devices, software applications, business units within one organization, or between different organizations. Interoperability implies that systems are able to interact (i.e., exchange messages), read and understand each other’s messages, and share the same expectations about the effect of the message exchange. In this paper we analyze and define in detail what it means for software systems to be interoperable. We identify three different levels of interoperability – the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic level – and define the requirements for assessing interoperability at each of these levels. We propose a method for formally verifying the semantic and pragmatic interoperability of a number of systems, given a target for integration

Requirements and Method for Assessment of Service Interoperability

Service interoperability is a major obstacle in realizing the SOA vision. Interoperability is the capability of multiple, autonomous and heterogeneous systems to use each other’s services effectively. It is about the meaningful sharing of functionality and information that leads to the achievement of a common goal. In this paper we systematically explain what interoperability means and analyze possible interoperability problems. Further, we define requirements for service interoperability and present a method to assess whether a composite system meets the identified requirements

On Architectural Support for Behaviour Refinement in Distributed Systems Design

During the top-down design of distributed systems, abstract designs have to be replaced by more concrete designs, which add details that define how these systems can be implemented using available building blocks. Behaviour refinement is a design operation in which abstract behaviours are replaced by more concrete behaviours. Methods that guide and enforce the correctness of these replacements are necessary. This paper presents a set of methods to perform behaviour refinement, based on a careful consideration of the architectural concepts of action and causality relation. Correctness is enforced by validation of the conformance relation between an abstract and a concrete behaviour. Rules are provided to determine whether a concrete behaviour conforms to an abstract behaviour