Incorporating Security Behaviour into Business Models Using a Model Driven Approach

There has, in recent years, been growing interest in Model Driven Engineering (MDE), in which models are the primary design artifacts and transformations are applied to these models to generate refinements leading to usable implementations over specific platforms. There is also interest in factoring out a number of non-functional aspects, such as security, to provide reusable solutions applicable to a number of different applications. This paper brings these two approaches together, investigating, in particular, the way behaviour from the different sources can be combined and integrated into a single design model. Doing so involves transformations that weave together the constraints from the various aspects and are, as a result, more complex to specify than the linear pipelines of transformations used in most MDE work to date. The approach taken here involves using an aspect model as a template for refining particular patterns in the business model, and the transformations are expressed as graph rewriting rules for both static and behaviour elements of the models

The ODO project: a Case Study in Integration of Multimedia Services

Recent years have witnessed a steady growth in the availability of wide-area multi-service networks. These support a variety of traffic types including data, control messages, audio and video. Consequently they are often thought of as integrated media carriers. To date, however, use of these networks has been limited to isolated applications which exhibit very little or no integration amongst themselves. This paper describes a project which investigated organisational, user interfacing and programming techniques to exploit this integration of services at the application level

Communications software performance prediction

Software development can be costly and it is important that confidence in a software system be established as early as possible in the design process. Where the software supports communication services, it is essential that the resultant system will operate within certain performance constraints (e.g. response time). This paper gives an overview of work in progress on a collaborative project sponsored by BT which aims to offer performance predictions at an early stage in the software design process. The Permabase architecture enables object-oriented software designs to be combined with descriptions of the network configuration and workload as a basis for the input to a simulation model which can predict aspects of the performance of the system. The prototype implementation of the architecture uses a combination of linked design and simulation tools

Data-analysis strategies for image-based cell profiling

Image-based cell profiling is a high-throughput strategy for the quantification of phenotypic differences among a variety of cell populations. It paves the way to studying biological systems on a large scale by using chemical and genetic perturbations. The general workflow for this technology involves image acquisition with high-throughput microscopy systems and subsequent image processing and analysis. Here, we introduce the steps required to create high-quality image-based (i.e., morphological) profiles from a collection of microscopy images. We recommend techniques that have proven useful in each stage of the data analysis process, on the basis of the experience of 20 laboratories worldwide that are refining their image-based cell-profiling methodologies in pursuit of biological discovery. The recommended techniques cover alternatives that may suit various biological goals, experimental designs, and laboratories' preferences.Peer reviewe

What Foundations does the RM-ODP need?

This position paper revisits the requirements for the set of Foundation Concepts for the ODP Reference Model and the approach originally taken to satisfying them. It then examines, in the light of experience, the areas where the Foundations have subsided, and areas where extensions need to be built. The aim is to provide a starting point for discussion on requirements to change the Foundations document

Black Cats and Yellow Birds - What do Viewpoint Correspondences Do?

The ODP Reference Model is one of a number of specification frameworks which are based on the definition of a set of viewpoints that are coupled together by the definition of correspondences between terms. Wherever a correspondence is declared, any real world entity that is represented by a term in one viewpoint must also satisfy the requirements placed by the occurrence of the corresponding term in the other viewpoint. Although this idea represents an intuitively simple and satisfying way of talking about the design of complex systems, the idea of a correspondence is not as simple as it might, at first sight, appear. This paper uses simple examples to illustrate some of the complexities resulting from the coupling of object models and examines the consequences for claims of conformance to the complete system of specifications

Distributed Quality of Service Multicast Routing with Multiple Metrics for Receiver initiated Joins

This paper describes a novel method of building multicast trees for real time traffic with quality of service constraints. There is a wide range of heuristics to calculate the optimal multicast distribution trees with bounds on the maximum delay from the source to all members. However these heuristics require all the members to be known in advance and assume the existence of a centralized service. We present a heuristic-best cost individual join (BCIJ)-that joins members one by one, randomly to the existing tree. The method does not need previous knowledge of the group members. Trees are dynamically built when each member arrives in the group. A distributed method-multiple metric broadcast (MMB)-for nodes to obtain the best valid path to the existing tree is also presented. MMB is inspired by reverse path forwarding and broadcasts queries to the network that reach existing on-tree members. These reply with the best valid paths to the joining member. The member then selects the best path. This avoids the use of any centralized service and the need for link-state information to be available in any node. The evaluation presented shows that the BCIJ produces trees with better cost than existing centralized heuristics and that MMB does not have a major effect on the network if the group participation is sufficiently large

The specification and conformance of ODP systems

Open Distributed Processing (ODP) is a joint standardisation activity of the ISO and ITU. A reference model has been defined which describes an architecture for building open distributed systems. This paper introduces the key aspects of the reference model of open distributed processing, including the ODP conformance framework. We discuss how specific formal techniques are used in the ODP viewpoints, along with the implications for conformance assessment using such techniques. Particular attention is given to the role of consistency in the conformance assessment process. Finally, we review the current work on an ODP conformance testing methodology

Integration of location services in the Open Distributed Office

There has recently been much interest in location systems which enable people and equipment to be tracked as they move within and across buildings. Perhaps the most popular of these is the active badge location system where tracking is done by means of IR communication between badges and a network of stations, but others include system login information, and personal diary systems. In the light of this, we describe a location system which does not rely solely on one specific mechanism, but uses and combines information from as many sources as possible, under the control of a master location system (MLS) which co-ordinates all location systems available within an organisation

VitKit: a Voice Interaction Toolkit

This paper describes the Voice Interaction ToolKIT(VitKit), a C++ class library for building telephone-based user interfaces. Rather than use a high-level specification approach, it is intended that programmers use the classes directly to compose interfaces, although the possibility of developing code-generators for building (parts of) interfaces is not excluded. The toolkit supports dynamic construction and re-configuration of interfaces and adopts a very flexible approach to interfacing with underlying applications