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DECOS: an integrated time-triggered architecture

DECOS: eine integrierte zeitgesteuerte Architektur

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Depending on the physical structuring of large distributed safety-critical real-time systems, one can distinguish federated and integrated system architectures. This paper describes an integrated system architecture which combines the complexity management advantages of federated systems with the functional integration and hardware benefits of an integrated approach. In order to control complexity, the overall functionality is divided into a set of application subsystems, each with dedicated architectural communication services, allowing developers to act as if they were building an application for a federated architecture. The introduced architecture builds upon the validated services of a time-triggered core architecture, which provides a physical network as a shared resource for the communication activities of more than one application subsystem. The communication resources are encapsulated and multiplexed between application subsystems. In analogy, encapsulated partitions are used to share node computers among software modules of multiple application subsystems. Architectural encapsulation mechanisms ensure that the assumptions and abstractions performed in the functional system structuring also hold after combining the different subsystems on the target platform.

In Abhängigkeit der physikalischen Strukturierung von großen verteilten sicherheitskritischen Echtzeitsystemen können föderierte und integrierte Systemarchitekturen unterschieden werden. Diese Arbeit beschreibt eine integrierte Systemarchitektur, welche die Vorteile föderierter Architekturen in Bezug auf Komplexitätsmanagement mit den Vorteilen eines integrierten Ansatzes (d. h. bessere funktionale Integration und Ressourcenauslastung) vereint. Um die Komplexität des Gesamtsystems zu beherrschen, erfolgt eine Unterteilung in Applikationssubsysteme, die zudem mit spezifischen Architekturdiensten ausgestattet sind. Insbesondere werden die Kommunikationsdienste in deren Funktionalität und Zeitverhalten an die jeweiligen Applikationsanforderungen angepasst. Designer können das System daher in einer Weise entwickeln, wie dies eine föderierte Architektur gestatten würde. Die vorgestellte integrierte Systemarchitektur basiert auf den validierten Diensten einer zeitgesteuerten Kernarchitektur, wobei das physikalische Netzwerk eines einzelnen, verteilten zeitgesteuerten Computersystems als gemeinsame Ressource für die Kommunikationsaktivitäten mehrerer Applikationssubsysteme dient. Die Kommunikationsressourcen werden enkapsuliert und zwischen Applikationssubsystemen gemultiplext. Ebenso dienen enkapsulierte Partitionen innerhalb von Komponenten der Aufteilung von Komponentenressourcen (z. B. Prozessorzeit und Speicher) zwischen Softwaremodulen verschiedener Applikationssubsysteme. Die Enkapsulierungsmechanismen der Architektur auf Netzwerk- und Komponentenebene stellen sicher, dass die im Rahmen der funktionalen Systemstrukturierung getroffenen Annahmen und Abstraktionen auch nach der Integration der verschiedenen Subsysteme auf der Zielplattform halten.

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Obermaisser, R., Peti, P., Huber, B. et al. DECOS: an integrated time-triggered architecture. Elektrotech. Inftech. 123, 83–95 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00502-006-0323

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