A Generalised Coordination Design Pattern for the EX-MAN Component Model

Abstract

In the latest technologies for next generation using in Cyber-Physical Systems, 5G and IoT (Internet of Things) based solutions have a significant contribution. For the construction of such applications, component-based development approaches offer to produce systems by using pre-built tested and reliable components with shorter development time. At the architecture level, a software system can be viewed as a collection of two kinds of elements. One kind is responsible for computation and the other kind is responsible for communication. Using a component model, that separates the communication and computation into distinct layers, enables us to secure the communication part of the system. In this paper, we propose a design pattern which defines coordination/communication program units (referred to as exogenous connectors) for a repository of reusable connectors in the EX-MAN component model. There are many attempts of implementing exogenous connector in different tools in unspecified ways. Our proposed pattern for a generalised exogenous connector helps in specifying exogenous connectors with enough details that can be used for the implementation of these connectors. Our model enables in-depth analysis of different kinds of exogenous connectors with respect to its static/dynamic behaviour in a system. In this paper, we model and simulate the static/dynamic behaviour of sample exogenous connectors based on our proposed model. Using our specifications of exogenous connector, we have developed exogenous composition framework (ECF) for system development. INDEX TERMS Coordination, Control flow, Design Pattern, Communication, Code generation I. INTRODUCTION System development approaches are revised for quicker and safer construction with the change in technology and market trends. The technologies eminent for future growth include 5G and IoT based applications [5], [16]. Hence, software based systems are becoming bigger and complex with the aforementioned advancements of technologies. For quicker and economical development, the use of component based development (CBD) approaches for these technologies is also rising [4], [17]. The security and verifiability are two important features to achieve in CBD approaches [49]. Parry and Wolf proposed a model for software architecture in their seminal work [35]; this model is comprised of units representing computation (referred to as components) and communication (referred to as connectors). Two or more computation units are composed by using connectors to create a system. Hence, to address the issue of complexity and scalability, composition is used to create bigger and complex systems from existing program units [43]. Software composition is the way to reduce the construction cost in CBD. Furthermore, CBD also seeks to automate composition as much as possible [26]. A component model defines a basic program unit (referred to as a component) and mechanisms to create bigger units/systems from smaller units (referred to as composition). Hence, for its focused development for/wit...