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Reasoning about Software Architectures with Contractually Specified Components

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Component-Based Software Quality

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2693))

Abstract

One of the motivations for specifying software architectures explicitly is the better prediction of system quality attributes. In this chapter we present an approach for determining the reliability of component-based software architectures.

Our method is based on RADL (Rich Architecture Definition Language), an extension of DARWIN [16]. RADL places special emphasis on component interoperation and, in particular, on accounting for the effects of interoperation on system reliability. To achieve this, our methods use a notion of design-by-contract [19] for components, called parameterized contracts [26]. Our contracts involve finite state machines that allow software architects to define how a component’s reliability will react to a deployment environment. We show how a system, built from contractually specified components, can be understood in terms of Markov models, facilitating system reliability analysis.

We illustrate our approach with an e-commerce example and report about empirical measurements which confirm our analytical reliability prediction by means of monitoring in our reliability testbed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fachbereich Informatik. Carl von Ossietzky, Universität Oldenburg, D-26111, Oldenburg, Germany

    Ralf H. Reussner

  2. School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Monash University, Caulfield East, Victoria, 3145, Australia

    Iman H. Poernomo & Heinz W. Schmidt

Authors
  1. Ralf H. Reussner
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  2. Iman H. Poernomo
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  3. Heinz W. Schmidt
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computing Sciences Department, GIISCo Research Group, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Buenos Aires 1400, 8300, Neuquén, Argentina

    Alejandra Cechich

  2. Dep. of Information Technologies & Systems - Escuela Superior de Informática, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Alarcos Research Group- Institute of Information Technologies & Systems, Ciudad Real, Spain

    Mario Piattini

  3. Universidad de Málaga, Spain

    Antonio Vallecillo

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Reussner, R.H., Poernomo, I.H., Schmidt, H.W. (2003). Reasoning about Software Architectures with Contractually Specified Components. In: Cechich, A., Piattini, M., Vallecillo, A. (eds) Component-Based Software Quality. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2693. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45064-1_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45064-1_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40503-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45064-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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