Untitled

by
Sean Walton & Venkat Chakravarthi

Advised by
Erik Eide

Distributed, real-time, embedded (DRE) systems frequently need to satisfy complex requirements, and the implementations of such systems need to deal with crosscutting concerns including performance, predictability, concurrency, and memory constraints. DRE systems must also be configurable for different scenarios, enabling lower-cost and speedier development and deployment. Component-based software development (CBSD) and aspect-oriented programming (AOP) are two approaches that promise to dramatically improve the modularity and configurability of DRE systems.

Our research will lead to an improved understanding of (1) how crosscutting concerns can be modularized across a DRE application and middleware boundaries and (2) how CBSD and AOP interact with typical real-time requirements and scale to support DRE middleware product lines. We are using four main tools in our research. RTZen (a real-time CORBA 2.3 ORB) and RTJava provide the middleware and real-time features needed in DRE applications. AspectJ (an aspect-oriented extension to Java) provides language support for modularizing the implementation of crosscutting concerns. Finally, Jiazzi (a component language for Java, created at Utah) provides the management of the various components in the system. Using these tools, our research goals are to support both component-like encapsulation and controlled exposure to aspects, to enable type-checking within composed systems, and to allow flexible middleware configuration. Accomplishing these goals will mean addressing performance, predictability, concurrency, and memory-capacity concerns, placing industry-quality middleware in the hands of DRE developers.