Initialisation Problems in Feature Composition

Composing features that have inconsistent requirements may lead to feature interactions that violate requirements satisfied by each feature in isolation. These interactions manifest themselves as conflicts on shared resources. Arbitration is a common approach to resolving such conflicts that uses prioritisation to decide which feature has access to resources when there is a conflict. However, arbitration alone does not guarantee satisfaction of the requirement of the feature that eventually gains access to a resource. This is because arbitration does not take into account that the resource may be in a state that is inconsistent with that expected by the feature. We call this the initialisation problem. In this thesis we propose an approach to addressing the initialisation problem which combines arbitration with contingencies. Contingency means having several specifications per feature satisfying the same requirement, depending on the current resource state. We illustrate and validate our approach by applying it to resolving conflicts between features in smart home and automotive domains. The validation shows that contingencies complement arbitration by enabling satisfaction of the requirement of the feature that eventually gains access to a shared resource, regardless of the current state of the resource. The main contribution of this thesis is an approach to analysing initialisation concerns in feature composition. At the core of our approach is an explicit consideration of all possible states of a resource as potential initial states. Given each initial state we then derive corresponding specifications that would enable a feature to satisfy its requirement in those states. We show that our approach to initialisation problems is relevant to addressing the feature interaction problem by characterising some types of conflicts as initialisation concerns

Interactive Conflict Detection and Resolution for Personalized Features

Abstract: In future telecommunications systems, behaviour will be defined by inexperienced users for many different purposes, often by specifying requirements in the form of policies. The Call Processing Language (CPL) was developed by the IETF in order to make it possible to define telephony policies in an Internet telephony environment. However, user-defined policies can hide inconsistencies or feature interactions. In this paper, a method and a tool are proposed to flag inconsistencies in a set of policies and to assist the user in correcting them. These policies can be defined by the user in a user-friendly language or derived automatically from a CPL script. The approach builds on a pre-existing logic programming tool that is able to identify inconsistencies in feature definitions. Our new tool is capable of explaining in user-oriented terminology the inconsistencies flagged, to suggest possible solutions, and to implement the chosen solution. It is sensitive to the types of features and interactions that will be created by naive users. This tool is also capable of assembling a set of individual policies specified in a user-friendly manner into a single CPL script in an appropriate priority order for execution by telecommunication systems