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Tools for Commercial Component Assembly

Francis Bordeleau, Zeligsoft/Carleton University

Mark Vigder, National Research Council Canada

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Context: Component-Based Distributed Applications

Application Engineer

Target-independent Component Assembly

Implementations

A2A6

A5

A3 A4

A1

Platform 1

Node1Node2

Deployment 1

Platform 2

Node2

Node1

Node4

Deployment 3

Node3

Node1Node2

Deployment 2

Application C1C1

C3C3 C4C4

C2C2

A1A6

A5A3

A2A6

A5A3

A1A4

A5A3

A1A4

A5 A3A2

A6A5

A3

A1

A6

A5

A3

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Roles for Component-Based Application Engineering

Application Engineer(COTS

Component)

Target-independent Component Assembly

Implementations

A2A6

A5

A3A4

A1

Platform 1

Node1Node2

Deployment 1

Platform 2

Node2

Node1

Node4

Deployment 3

Node3

Node1Node2

Deployment 2

C1C1

C3C3 C4C4

C2C2

A1A6

A5A3

A2A6

A5A3

A1A4

A5A3

A1A4

A5 A3A2

A6A5

A3

A1

A6

A5

A3

COTSComponent Implementer

Application Deployer

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Component elements

C1C1

C3C3 C4C4

C2C2

Components consist of: Interface

–Inputs, outputs, ports, attributes Configuration options

–Local tailoring

Provided by COTS component implementer:

Implementation(s)–One or more implementations per component, possibly from different vendors

Deployment requirements/constraints–Platform, environment, etc.

Implementations

A6A5

A3 A4A2

A1

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COTS Component Market Requirements

Developing a viable COTS component market requires two key aspects to be addressed:

1. Component• Industry agreed interfaces (APIs, protocols, configurations)• Industry standards for describing components and component

artefacts

2. Deployment framework• Infrastructure services• Management of deployment, runtime components, etc.• Industry standards for describing platforms

• Descriptor files required for:• Application/component• Deployment platform• Deployment plan

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Problem: Descriptor Generation

Application Engineer

Component-Based Application

Application

C1C1

C3C3 C4C4

C2C2

Descriptor Files (XML)

• Conventional UML tools

• VISIO

Manual

• Labor intensive

• Error prone

Validation ?

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Currently

To build a new application, an Application Engineer must:

• Assemble and configure components • Validate component configurations and assemblies• Create the descriptor files to deploy• Validate the descriptor files

Issues• The work is very labor intensive and error prone• It requires highly-skilled engineers• As the number of components and application complexity increase,

application maintenance will become extremely difficult and costly

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Solution: Automatic generation and validation

Application Engineer

Component-Based Application

Application

C1C1

C3C3 C4C4

C2C2

Descriptor Files (XML)

Validation?

Automated

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Industry Standards

Deployment and Configuration Standards are defined within the context of a component framework:

• J2EE and .NET• CORBA Component Model• OMG Deployment and Configuration Standard• Domain specific standards

• Software Defined Radio (SCA)• Automotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR)

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Questions

•Technical issues?• Definition of concrete deployment platforms• Appropriate Deployment and Configuration standards

•Business issues?• Industry buy-in• Standards processes

•Development approaches?• UML and MDA• Tool support