Completeness, robustness, and safety in real-time software requirements specification

This paper presents an approach to providing a rigorous basis for ascertaining whether or not a given set of software requirements is internally complete, i.e., closed with respect to questions and inferences that can be made on the basis of information included in the specification. Emphasis is placed on aspects of software requirements specifications that previously have not been adequately handled, including timing abstractions, safety, and robustness

Composing Aspects at Shared Join Points

Aspect-oriented languages provide means to superimpose aspectual behavior on a given set of join points. It is possible that not just a single, but several units of aspectual behavior need to be superimposed on the same join point. Aspects that specify the superimposition of these units are said to "share" the same join point. Such shared join points may give rise to issues such as\ud determining the exact execution order and the dependencies among the aspects. In this paper, we present a detailed analysis of the problem, and identify a set of requirements upon mechanisms for composing aspects at shared join points. To address the identified issues, we propose a general and declarative model for defining constraints upon the possible compositions of aspects at a shared join point. Finally, by using an extended notion of join points, we show how concrete aspectoriented programming languages, particularly AspectJ and Compose*, can adopt the proposed model

The formal, tool supported development of real time systems

The language SDL has long been applied in the development of various kinds of systems. Real-time systems are one application area where SDL has been applied extensively. Whilst SDL allows for certain modelling aspects of real-time systems to be represented, the language and its associated tool support have certain drawbacks for modelling and reasoning about such systems. In this paper we highlight the limitations of SDL and its associated tool support in this domain and present language extensions and next generation real-time system tool support to help overcome them. The applicability of the extensions and tools is demonstrated through a case study based upon a multimedia binding object used to support a configuration of time dependent information producers and consumers realising the so called lip-synchronisation algorithm

Analysis of equivalence mapping for terminology services

This paper assesses the range of equivalence or mapping types required to facilitate interoperability in the context of a distributed terminology server. A detailed set of mapping types were examined, with a view to determining their validity for characterizing relationships between mappings from selected terminologies (AAT, LCSH, MeSH, and UNESCO) to the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) scheme. It was hypothesized that the detailed set of 19 match types proposed by Chaplan in 1995 is unnecessary in this context and that they could be reduced to a less detailed conceptually-based set. Results from an extensive mapping exercise support the main hypothesis and a generic suite of match types are proposed, although doubt remains over the current adequacy of the developing Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) Core Mapping Vocabulary Specification (MVS) for inter-terminology mapping

Event notification services: analysis and transformation of profile definition languages

The integration of event information from diverse event notification sources is, as with meta-searching over heterogeneous search engines, a challenging task. Due to the complexity of profile definition languages, known solutions for heterogeneous searching cannot be applied for event notification. In this technical report, we propose transformation rules for profile rewriting. We transform each profile defined at a meta-service into a profile expressed in the language of each event notification source. Due to unavoidable asymmetry in the semantics of different languages, some superfluous information may be delivered to the meta-service. These notifications are then post-processed to reduce the number of spurious messages. We present a survey and classification of profile definition languages for event notification, which serves as basis for the transformation rules. The proposed rules are implemented in a prototype transformation module for a Meta-Service for event notification

Metamodel for Tracing Concerns across the Life Cycle

Several aspect-oriented approaches have been proposed to specify aspects at different phases in the software life cycle. Aspects can appear within a phase, be refined or mapped to other aspects in later phases, or even disappear.\ud Tracing aspects is necessary to support understandability and maintainability of software systems. Although several approaches have been introduced to address traceability of aspects, two important limitations can be observed. First, tracing is not yet tackled for the entire life cycle. Second, the traceability model that is applied usually refers to elements of specific aspect languages, thereby limiting the reusability of the adopted traceability model.We propose the concern traceability metamodel (CTM) that enables traceability of concerns throughout the life cycle, and which is independent from the aspect languages that are used. CTM can be enhanced to provide additional properties for tracing, and be instantiated to define\ud customized traceability models with respect to the required aspect languages. We have implemented CTM in the tool M-Trace, that uses XML-based representations of the models and XQuery queries to represent tracing information. CTM and M-Trace are illustrated for a Concurrent Versioning System to trace aspects from the requirements level to architecture design level and the implementation

Towards more accurate real time testing

The languages Message Sequence Charts (MSC) [1], System Design Language1 (SDL) [2] and Testing and Test Control Notation Testing2 (TTCN-3) [3] have been developed for the design, modelling and testing of complex software systems. These languages have been developed to complement one another in the software development process. Each of these languages has features for describing, analysing or testing the real time properties of systems. Robust toolsets exist which provide integrated environments for the design, analysis and testing of systems, and it is claimed, for the complete development of real time systems. It was shown in [4] however, that there are fundamental problems with the SDL language and its associated tools for modelling and reasoning about real time systems. In this paper we present the limitations of TTCN-3 and propose recommendations which help minimise the timing inaccuracies that would otherwise occur in using the language directly

XRound : A reversible template language and its application in model-based security analysis

Successful analysis of the models used in Model-Driven Development requires the ability to synthesise the results of analysis and automatically integrate these results with the models themselves. This paper presents a reversible template language called XRound which supports round-trip transformations between models and the logic used to encode system properties. A template processor that supports the language is described, and the use of the template language is illustrated by its application in an analysis workbench, designed to support analysis of security properties of UML and MOF-based models. As a result of using reversible templates, it is possible to seamlessly and automatically integrate the results of a security analysis with a model. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved