Software architectures: multi-scale refinement

We propose a multi-scale modeling approach for complex software system architecture description. The multi-scale description may help to obtain meaningful granularities of these systems and to understand and master their complexity. This vision enables an architect designer to express constraints concerning different description levels, oriented to facilitate adaptability management. We define a correct-by-design approach that allows a given abstract architectural description to be refined into architecture models. We follow a progressive refinement process based on model transformations; it begins with a coarse-grain description and ends with a fine-grain description that specifies design details. The adaptability property management is performed through model transformation operations. The model transformation ensures the correctness of UML description, and the correctness of the modeled system. We experimented our approach with a use case that models a smart home system for the monitoring of elderly and disabled persons at home

Une approche de description multi-échelles et multi points de vue pour les architectures logicielles dynamiques

National audienceThis paper aims to presenting an approach of modeling multi-scale and multi point of view to facilitate the description and the validation of dynamic software architectures. We present a model-based design approach founded on visual notations allowing to describe, by extending UML notations, dynamic software architectures for different description levels. We describe a progressive process of refinement to automate the transition from a generic model describing a given point of view at a given scale to a specific model describing this point of view at another scale. To ensure compatibility between the different levels of description, we adopt a rule-oriented transformation technique. The rules manage the refinement of a given scale model to another and also the transition from a point of view to another at the same scale. The modeling of dynamic software architectures generates models that must be valid with respect to their meta-models. The approach that we propose is based on validation rules between different scales and different points of view at the same scale. This validation ensures the validity of the architectural model. We also present the interface of an Eclipse plug-in that we developed to implement and experiment our approach. We illustrate our approach by its application to a case study modeling Emergency Response and Crisis Management Systems(ERCMS)

A Tool for Multi-scale Modeling of Software Architectures: Application to the Smart Home for Telemonitoring Elderly People at Home

International audienceThis paper presents a model-based graphical tool for supporting multiscale modeling of software architectures. The implemented solution is based on a rule-oriented iterative modeling process ensuring transition from a coarse-grained description to a fine-grained description. The rules manage the refinement between scales and are applied with respect to the system constraints. Multi-scale architectures are modeled graphically using UML notations. To ensure model consistency, our approach supports model transformation and validation of UML models with OCL constraints. In order to experiment our approach, we tested it with a predictive and preventive system dedicated to the smart home application for maintaining personalized medicine at home. This system is helpful for people with loss of autonomy, exposed to risks of accidents or needing a precise daily medical follow-up. We implement the resulting models using the Eclipse platform

A multi-scale modelling perspective for SoS architectures

International audienceSoftware architectures for System of Systems (SoS) is an important research area. The design of an SoS can be organized around a set of architectural transformation models. In this paper, we propose a multi-scale modeling approach for SoS architecture description mastering the description details complexity. The proposed design approach is founded on SysML (System modeling language) notations and uses block diagrams. The diagrams are subject to vertical and horizontal transformations for refinement, since reaching a fine-grain description representing the necessary details. The intermediate models provide a description with a given abstraction that allow the validation to be conducted significantly while remaining tractable w.r.t. complexity. The validation scope can involve intrinsic properties ensuring the model correctness w.r.t. SysML description (eg. interface compatibility). An SoS architecture will provide these intrinsic properties, to have a precise model of the SoS architecture (its constituents and the connections between them). We adopt a rule-oriented description technique. The rules manage the refinement process as a model transformation between the coarse-grain and the fine-grain descriptions. We experimented our approach by a case study modeling an Integrated Air Defense (IAD) SoS using SysML models

A refinement-based approach for specifying multi-scale software architectures

International audienc

Multi-scale modeling for software-intensive systems-of-systems architectures

International audienceIn this paper, we propose a multi-scale modeling approach for SoS architecture description. This study aims at mastering the complexity of such systems both at the human and automated processing levels by considering increasingly detailed modeling scales. Some high level properties can be expressed on informal descriptions with a high level of abstractions and checked on simple formal descriptions. Some other properties need more detailed descriptions to be expressed and formal specifications to be elaborated. We elaborate a set of coarse-grained and fine-grained models and we define the corresponding refinement rules to build correct by design Publish-Subscribe software architectures. The defined rules respect the principle of information dissemination guaranteeing that the produced information reaches all the subscribed consumers. In order to formalize the multi-scale characterization process and to use it in the design process, we have chosen to follow an iterative modeling methodology that captures diverse perspectives of the performance modeling of SoS. We discuss how our approach to modeling supports the specific characteristics of an SoS and illustrate this through a case study, based on the (Integrated Air Defense) IAD scenario, demonstrating how we may obtain correct models within a SoS with emergent properties