Investigation Of OSI Protocols For Distributed Interactive Simulation: Final Report, A Transition Plan

Report assesses the impact of using Open System Interconnection (OSI) protocols in the distributed interactive simulation (DIS) environment

Easing the Transition from Inspiration to Implementation: A Rapid Prototyping Platform for Wireless Medium Access Control Protocols

Packet broadcast networks are in widespread use in modern wireless communication systems. Medium access control is a key functionality within such technologies. A substantial research effort has been and continues to be invested into the study of existing protocols and the development of new and specialised ones. Academic researchers are restricted in their studies by an absence of suitable wireless MAC protocol development methods. This thesis describes an environment which allows rapid prototyping and evaluation of wireless medium access control protocols. The proposed design flow allows specification of the protocol using the specification and description language (SDL) formal description technique. A tool is presented to convert the SDL protocol description into a C++ model suitable for integration into both simulation and implementation environments. Simulations at various levels of abstraction are shown to be relevant at different stages of protocol design. Environments based on the Cinderella SDL simulator and the ns-2 network simulator have been developed which allow early functional verification, along with detailed and accurate performance analysis of protocols under development. A hardware platform is presented which allows implementation of protocols with flexibility in the hardware/software trade-off. Measurement facilities are integral to the hardware framework, and provide a means for accurate real-world feedback on protocol performance

Specification Of Distributed Interactive Simulation In The Estelle Formal Description Technique: Investigation Of OSI Protocols For Distributed Interactive Simulation

Report describes the approach taken by IST to develop a formal description of distributed interactive simulation (DIS), to generate a prototype DIS protocol machine derived directly from the developed DIS standard, and to test the DIS protocol.; Contents: 50513 01 List of tables -- List of figures -- Introduction -- General description -- Specification phase -- Testing phase -- Recommendations to the DIS workshop -- Conclusion -- Appendix A Estelle overview -- Appendix B Estelle specification of DIS standard -- Appendix C PET-DINGO user defined routines and makefile -- Appendix D Listing of PET-DINGO generated files from DIS specification -- Appendix E References

An approach to enacting business process models in support of the life cycle of integrated manufacturing systems

The complexity of enterprise engineering processes requires the application of reference architectures as means of guiding the achievement of an adequate level of business integration. This research aims to address important aspects of this requirement by associating the formalism of reference architectures to various life cycle phases of integrating manufacturing systems (IMS) and enabling their use in addressing contemporary system engineering issues. In pursuit of this aim, the following research activities were carried out: (1) to devise a framework which supports key phases of the IMS life cycle and (2) to populate part of this framework with an initial combination of architectures which can be encapsulated into a computer-aided systems engineering environment. This has led to the creation of a workbench capable of providing support for modelling, analysis, simulation, rapid-prototyping, configuration and run-time operation of an IMS, based on a consistent set of models associated with the engineering processes involved. The research effort concentrated on selecting and investigating the use of appropriate formalisms which underpin a selection of architectures and tools (i. e. CIM-OSA, Petrinets, object-oriented methods and CIM-BIOSYS), this by designing, implementing, applying and testing the workbench. The main contribution of this research is to demonstrate that it is possible to retain an adequate level of formalism, via computational structures and models, which extend through the IMS life cycle from a conceptual description of the system through to actions that the system performs when operating. The underlying methodology which supported this contribution is based on enacting models of system behaviour which encode important coordination aspects of manufacturing systems. The strategy for demonstrating the incorporation of formalism to the IMS life cycle was to enable the aggregation into a workbench of knowledge of 'what' the system is expected to achieve (i. e. 'problems' to be addressed) and 'how' the system can achieve it (i. e possible 'solutions'). Within the workbench, such a knowledge is represented through an amalgamation of business process modelling and object-oriented modelling approaches which, when adequately manipulated, can lead to business integration

Domain architecture a design framework for system development and integration

The ever growing complexity of software systems has revealed many short-comings in existing software engineering practices and has raised interest in architecture-driven software development. A system\u27s architecture provides a model of the system that suppresses implementation detail, allowing the architects to concentrate on the analysis and decisions that are most critical to structuring the system to satisfy its requirements. Recently, interests of researchers and practi-tioners have shifted from individual system architectures to architectures for classes of software systems which provide more general, reusable solutions to the issues of overall system organization, interoperability, and allocation of services to system components. These generic architectures, such as product line architectures and domain architectures, promote reuse and interoperability, and create a basis for cost effective construction of high-quality systems. Our focus in this dissertation is on domain architectures as a means of development and integration of large-scale, domain-specific business software systems. Business imperatives, including flexibility, productivity, quality, and ability to adapt to changes, have fostered demands for flexible, coherent and enterprise--wide integrated business systems. The components of such systems, developed separately or purchased off the shelf, need to cohesively form an overall compu-tational environment for the business. The inevitable complexity of such integrated solutions and the highly-demanding process of their construction, management, and evolution support require new software engineering methodologies and tools. Domain architectures, prescribing the organization of software systems in a business domain, hold a promise to serve as a foundation on which such integrated business systems can be effectively constructed. To meet the above expectations, software architectures must be properly defined, represented, and applied, which requires suitable methodologies as well as process and tool support. Despite research efforts, however, state-of-the-art methods and tools for architecture-based system development do not yet meet the practical needs of system developers. The primary focus of this dissertation is on developing methods and tools to support domain architecture engineering and on leveraging architectures to achieve improved system development and integration in presence of increased complexity. In particular, the thesis explores issues related to the following three aspects of software technology: system complexity and software architectures as tools to alleviate complexity; domain architectures as frameworks for construction of large scale, flexible, enterprise-wide software systems; and architectural models and representation techniques as a basis for good” design. The thesis presents an archi-tectural taxonomy to help categorize and better understand architectural efforts. Furthermore, it clarifies the purpose of domain architectures and characterizes them in detail. To support the definition and application of domain architectures we have developed a method for domain architecture engineering and representation: GARM-ASPECT. GARM, the Generic Architecture Reference Model, underlying the method, is a system of modeling abstractions, relations and recommendations for building representations of reference software architectures. The model\u27s focus on reference and domain architectures determines its main distinguishing features: multiple views of architectural elements, a separate rule system to express constraints on architecture element types, and annotations such as “libraries” of patterns and “logs” of guidelines. ASPECT is an architecture description language based on GARM. It provides a normalized vocabulary for representing the skeleton of an architecture, its structural view, and establishes a framework for capturing archi-tectural constraints. It also allows extensions of the structural view with auxiliary information, such as behavior or quality specifications. In this respect, ASPECT provides facilities for establishing relationships among different specifications and gluing them together within an overall architectural description. This design allows flexibility and adaptability of the methodology to the specifics of a domain or a family of systems. ASPECT supports the representation of reference architectures as well as individual system architectures. The practical applicability of this method has been tested through a case study in an industrial setting. The approach to architecture engineering and representation, presented in this dissertation, is pragmatic and oriented towards software practitioners. GARM-ASPECT, as well as the taxonomy of architectures are of use to architects, system planners and system engineers. Beyond these practical contributions, this thesis also creates a more solid basis for expbring the applicability of architectural abstractions, the practicality of representation approaches, and the changes required to the devel-opment process in order to achieve the benefits from an architecture-driven software technology

A graphical representation for the formal description technique Estelle

Includes bibliographical references.This dissertation concerns the specification and description of complex communicating systems using Formal Description Techniques. Specifically, we propose a standard graphical representation for the Formal Description Technique Estelle and present a prototype editor based on this representation. Together they integrate the new graphical representation with existing Estelle textual tools to create a powerful graphical design technique for Estelle. The perennial popularity of graphical techniques, combined with recent advances in computer graphics hardware and software which enable their effective application in a computing environment, provide a double impetus for the development of a graphical representation for Estelle. Most importantly, a graphical technique is more easily read and understood by humans, and can better describe the complex structure and inter-relationships of components of concurrent communicating systems. Modern graphical technology also presents a number of opportunities, separate from the specification method, such as hyperlinking, multiple windows and hiding of detail, which enrich the graphical technique. The prototype editor makes use of these opportunities to provide the protocol engineer with an advanced interface which actively supports the protocol design process to improve the quality of design. The editor also implements translations between the graphical representation and the standard Estelle textual representation, on the one hand allowing the graphical interpretation to be applied to existing textual specifications, and on the other, the application of existing text-based processing tools to a graphical specification description

Proceedings of Monterey Workshop 2001 Engineering Automation for Sofware Intensive System Integration

The 2001 Monterey Workshop on Engineering Automation for Software Intensive System Integration was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Army Research Office and the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency. It is our pleasure to thank the workshop advisory and sponsors for their vision of a principled engineering solution for software and for their many-year tireless effort in supporting a series of workshops to bring everyone together.This workshop is the 8 in a series of International workshops. The workshop was held in Monterey Beach Hotel, Monterey, California during June 18-22, 2001. The general theme of the workshop has been to present and discuss research works that aims at increasing the practical impact of formal methods for software and systems engineering. The particular focus of this workshop was "Engineering Automation for Software Intensive System Integration". Previous workshops have been focused on issues including, "Real-time & Concurrent Systems", "Software Merging and Slicing", "Software Evolution", "Software Architecture", "Requirements Targeting Software" and "Modeling Software System Structures in a fastly moving scenario".Office of Naval ResearchAir Force Office of Scientific Research Army Research OfficeDefense Advanced Research Projects AgencyApproved for public release, distribution unlimite