Coordination Systems in Role-Based Adaptive Software

Abstract

Software systems are becoming more open, distributed, pervasive, and connected. In such systems, the relationships between loosely-coupled application elements become non-deterministic. Coordination can be viewed as a way of making such loosely coupled systems more adaptable. In this paper we show how coordination-systems, which are analogous to nervous systems, can be defined independently from the functional systems they regulate. Such coordination systems are a network of organisers and contracts. We show how the contracts that make up the coordination-system can be used to monitor, regulate and configure the interactions between clusters of software entities called roles. Management and functional levels of contracts are defined. Management contracts regulate the flow of control through the roles. Functional contracts allow the specification of performance conditions. These contracts bind clusters of roles into self-managed composites — each composite with its own organiser role. The organiser roles can control, create, abrogate and reassign contracts. Adaptive systems are built from a recursive structure of such self-managed composites. The network of organiser roles and the contracts they control constitute a coordination-system that is a separate concern to the functional system. Association aspects are suggested as a mechanism to implement such coordination-systems.