Advanced Grid programming with components: a biometric identification case study

Component-oriented software development has been attracting increasing attention for building complex distributed applications. A new infrastructure supporting this advanced concept is our prototype component framework based on the Grid component model. This paper provides an overview of the component framework and presents a case study where we utilise the component-oriented approach to develop a business process application for a biometric identification system. We then introduce the tools being developed as part of an integrated development environment to enable graphical component-based development of Grid applications. Finally, we report our initial findings and experiences of efficiently using the component framework and set of software tools

Using XDAQ in Application Scenarios of the CMS Experiment

XDAQ is a generic data acquisition software environment that emerged from a rich set of of use-cases encountered in the CMS experiment. They cover not the deployment for multiple sub-detectors and the operation of different processing and networking equipment as well as a distributed collaboration of users with different needs. The use of the software in various application scenarios demonstrated the viability of the approach. We discuss two applications, the tracker local DAQ system for front-end commissioning and the muon chamber validation system. The description is completed by a brief overview of XDAQ.Comment: Conference CHEP 2003 (Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics, La Jolla, CA

Model Based Development of Quality-Aware Software Services

Modelling languages and development frameworks give support for functional and structural description of software architectures. But quality-aware applications require languages which allow expressing QoS as a first-class concept during architecture design and service composition, and to extend existing tools and infrastructures adding support for modelling, evaluating, managing and monitoring QoS aspects. In addition to its functional behaviour and internal structure, the developer of each service must consider the fulfilment of its quality requirements. If the service is flexible, the output quality depends both on input quality and available resources (e.g., amounts of CPU execution time and memory). From the software engineering point of view, modelling of quality-aware requirements and architectures require modelling support for the description of quality concepts, support for the analysis of quality properties (e.g. model checking and consistencies of quality constraints, assembly of quality), tool support for the transition from quality requirements to quality-aware architectures, and from quality-aware architecture to service run-time infrastructures. Quality management in run-time service infrastructures must give support for handling quality concepts dynamically. QoS-aware modeling frameworks and QoS-aware runtime management infrastructures require a common evolution to get their integration

SPIN-ning Software Architectures: A Method for Exploring Complex Systems

When designing complex software systems that provide multiple non-functional properties, it is usual to try to reuse (and finally compose) simpler existing designs, which deal with each of these properties in solitude. The paper describes a method for automatically and quickly identifying all the different ways one can compose such designs, with the aid of a model checke

An Analysis of Composability and Composition Anomalies

The separation of concerns principle aims at decomposing a given design problem into concerns that are mapped to multiple independent software modules. The application of this principle eases the composition of the concerns and as such supports composability. Unfortunately, a clean separation (and composition of concerns) at the design level does not always imply the composability of the concerns at the implementation level. The composability might be reduced due to limitations of the implementation abstractions and composition mechanisms. The paper introduces the notion of composition anomaly to describe a general set of unexpected composition problems that arise when mapping design concerns to implementation concerns. To distinguish composition anomalies from other composition problems the requirements for composability at the design level is provided. The ideas are illustrated for a distributed newsgroup system

The C Object System: Using C as a High-Level Object-Oriented Language

The C Object System (Cos) is a small C library which implements high-level concepts available in Clos, Objc and other object-oriented programming languages: uniform object model (class, meta-class and property-metaclass), generic functions, multi-methods, delegation, properties, exceptions, contracts and closures. Cos relies on the programmable capabilities of the C programming language to extend its syntax and to implement the aforementioned concepts as first-class objects. Cos aims at satisfying several general principles like simplicity, extensibility, reusability, efficiency and portability which are rarely met in a single programming language. Its design is tuned to provide efficient and portable implementation of message multi-dispatch and message multi-forwarding which are the heart of code extensibility and reusability. With COS features in hand, software should become as flexible and extensible as with scripting languages and as efficient and portable as expected with C programming. Likewise, Cos concepts should significantly simplify adaptive and aspect-oriented programming as well as distributed and service-oriented computingComment: 18

Integrated environment of systems automated engineering

The Standardization of a development process for systems of medium complexity, entirely supported by an integrated development environment, could mean a double contribution to the industry of systems development. On the one hand it would contribute to the reduction of costs by shortening times of development and facilitating the maintenance of the systems. On the other hand, by using conceptual models of a high level of abstraction, final users would be able to visualize and follow the progress of systems development and to commit themselves in the process actively, guaranteeing their success. The purpose of this series of papers is to identify, design, develop and integrate the components of an integrated environment for a system automated development, starting from high-level-abstraction formal specifications. It is intended to achieve a generation of systems starting from only two models: the static or data structure model, and the dynamic or functional model. The former is based on an adaptation of the conceptual pattern of entities and relationships, and the latter on the formal specification of operations in objects relational algebra and on the finite automaton theory. The maintenance of the systems generated by the tool would be made by operating directly on the static and dynamic models, with no need for either re-coding or making reverse engineering. The strength of the proposal is based on integration of the Software Engineering and the analysis and metrics of quality. Storage protocols of data definitions and storage protocols of interface definitions corresponding to a graph, through the state transitions and their gradation so that the user could visualize the development of the life cycle[6][32][33][47]. Any artifact or document can be measured and estimated if it is produced during the software life cycle. This study is an approximation to a process of activities supported by an effective help tool. Abstraction and visualization capacities are provided to the artifacts with the system design and analysis (CASE). Such artifacts under controlled conditions trace the software life cycle taking information of the structure (framework) of the application; with Quality, Reliability and Metrics.Eje: Ingeniería de Software y Base de DatosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

О проблемах интеграции интеллектуальных технологий в системах управления мобильных роботов

Рассмотрена специфика создания систем управления мобильных роботов с использованием готовых программных компонентов, реализованных сторонними разработчиками. Показана актуальность создания эффективных внутренних структур взаимодействия таких компонентов и родственность данной задачи мультиагентным подходам. Приведен пример реализации системы управления с трехуровневой иерархией функциональных компонентов как интеллектуальных агентов.Розглянуто специфіку створення систем керування мобільних роботів з використанням готових програмних компонентів, реалізованих сторонніми розробниками. Показано актуальність створення ефективних внутрішніх структур взаємодії таких компонентів та спорідненість даної задачі мультиагентним підходам. Наведено приклад реалізації системи керування із трирівневою ієрархією функціональних компонентів як інтелектуальніх агентів.This paper deals to the multiagent approach to the mobile robot’s control system development with using of previously known components of the third party developers. It is argued high importance of optimal informational interaction between components and connection of such task to multiagent approach. An example of the robot control’s system three-levels components hierarchy as an intelligent agents is given

Properties for Component Model: The definition Perspective

The presence of a large number of component models to date should be able to offer software developers a wide variety of component models -- which they can easily choose from -- for their software development projects. However, the opposite situation is currently observed, where the presence of many component models has caused difficulties in making the selection. Lack of properties or characteristics that can be used as a basis to perform objective comparison between the existing models is believed to have caused the difficulties. In this paper, a list of component model properties is derived by thoroughly examining the available component model definitions. Results from a comparative analysis performed on six component models using the properties show that the properties enable a more objective comparison between the existing component models to be performed