Property networks allowing oracle-based mode-change propagation in hierarchical components

2018

Designs

Growing software complexity is an increasing challenge for the software development of modern cyber-physical systems. A classical strategy for taming this complexity is to partition system behaviors into different operational modes specified at design time. Such a multi-mode system can change behavior by switching between modes at run-time. A complementary approach for reducing software complexity is provided by component-based software engineering (CBSE), which reduces complexity by building systems from composable, reusable and independently developed software components. CBSE and the multi-mode approach are fundamentally conflicting in that component-based development conceptually is a bottom-up approach, whereas partitioning systems into operational modes is a top-down approach with its starting point from a system-wide perspective. In this article, we show that it is possible to combine and integrate these two fundamentally conflicting approaches. The key to simultaneously benefiting from the advantages of both approaches lies in the introduction of a hierarchical mode concept that provides a conceptual linkage between the bottom-up component-based approach and system level modes. As a result, systems including modes can be developed from reusable mode-aware components. The conceptual drawback of the approach—the need for extensive message exchange between components to coordinate mode-switches—is eliminated by an algorithm that collapses the component hierarchy and thereby eliminates the need for inter-component coordination. As this algorithm is used from the design to implementation level (“compilation”), the CBSE design flexibility can be combined with efficiently implemented mode handling, thereby providing the complexity reduction of both approaches, without inducing any additional design or run-time costs. At the more specific level, this article presents (1) a mode mapping mechanism that formally specifies the mode relation between composable multi-mode components and (2) a mode transformation technique that transforms component modes to system-wide modes to achieve efficient implementation.

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“…Pop et al proposed an Oracle-based approach [18] that also supports the reuse of multi-mode components. Component behaviors are abstracted into a global property network.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fighting CPS Complexity by Component-Based Software Development of Multi-Mode Systems

2018

Designs

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“…Pop et al [6] abstract component behaviors into a global property network. The value change of a property of one component can be propagated throughout the property network, potentially changing the values of some properties of the other components.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Handling Emergency Mode Switch for Component-Based Systems

2014 21st Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference

2014

Software reuse is deemed as an effective technique for managing the growing software complexity of large systems. Software complexity can also be reduced by partitioning the system behavior into different modes. Such a multi-mode system is able to dynamically change its behavior by switching between different modes. When a multi-mode system is developed by reusable software components, a crucial issue is how to achieve a seamless composition of multi-mode components and handle mode switch properly. This is the motivation for the Mode Switch Logic (MSL), supporting the development of component-based multi-mode systems by providing mechanisms for mode switch handling. In this paper, MSL is extended and adapted to systems with emergency triggering of mode switches that must be handled with minimal delay. We propose an Immediate Handling with Buffering (IHB) approach to enable the responsive handling of such an emergency event in the presence of other concurrent non-emergency mode switch events. We present a model checking based verification of IHB and illustrate its benefits by an example.

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Flexible and Efficient Reuse of Multi-mode Components for Building Multi-mode Systems

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

2014