As software systems become more complex, the overall system structure—or software architecture—becomes a central design problem. An important step toward an engineering discipline of software is a formal basis for describing and analyzing these designs. In the article we present a formal approach to one aspect of architectural design: the interactions among components. The key idea is to define architectural connectors as explicit semantic entities. These are specified as a collection of protocols that characterize each of the participant roles in an interaction and how these roles interact. We illustrate how this scheme can be used to define a variety of common architectural connectors. We further provide a formal semantics and show how this leads to a system in which architectural compatibility can be checked in a way analogous to type-checking in programming languages.

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A formal basis for architectural connection

Conventional type systems specify interfaces in terms of values and domains. We present a light-weight formalism that captures the temporal aspects of software component interfaces. Specifically, we use an automata-based language to capture both input assumptions about the order in which the methods of a component are called, and output guarantees about the order in which the component calls external methods. The formalism supports automatic compatability checks between interface models, and thus constitutes a type system for component interaction. Unlike traditional uses of automata, our formalism is based on an optimistic approach to composition, and on an alternating approach to design refinement. According to the optimistic approach, two components are compatible if there is some environment that can make them work together. According to the alternating approach, one interface refines another if it has weaker input assumptions, and stronger output guarantees. We show that these notions have game-theoretic foundations that lead to efficient algorithms for checking compatibility and refinement.

Interface automata

Social science research contains a wealth of knowledge for people seeking to understand collaboration processes. The authors argue that public managers should look inside the “black box” of collaboration processes. Inside, they will find a complex construct of five variable dimensions: governance, administration, organizational autonomy, mutuality, and norms. Public managers must know these five dimensions and manage them intentionally in order to collaborate effectively.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4096567.pdf

Collaboration Processes: Inside the Black Box

This issue of the IBM Systems Journal explores a broad set of ideas and approaches to autonomic computing--some first steps in what we see as a journey to create more self-managing computing systems Autonomic computing represents a collection and integration of technologies that enable the creation of an information technology computing infrastructure for IBM's agenda for the next era of computing--e-business on demand This paper presents an overview of IBM's autonomic computing initiative It examines the genesis of autonomic computing, the industry and marketplace drivers, the fundamental characteristics of autonomic systems, a framework for how systems will evolve to become more self-managing, and the key role for open industry standards needed to support autonomic behavior in heterogeneous system environments Technologies explored in each of the papers presented in this issue are introduced for the reader

https://cs.drexel.edu/~spiros/teaching/CS576/papers/autonomic.pdf

The dawning of the autonomic computing era

http://www.wsmo.org/papers/publications/wsmf.paper.pdf

The Web Service Modeling Framework WSMF

In this article we examine the augmentation of application interfaces with enhanced specications that include sequencing constraints called protocols. Protocols make explicit the relationship between messages (methods) supported by the application. These relationships are usually only given implicitly, either in the code or in textual comments. We dene notions of interface compatibility based upon protocols and show how compatibility can be checked, discovering a class of errors that cannot be discovered via the type system alone. We then dene software adaptors that can be used to bridge the dierence between applications that have functionally compatible but type- and protocol-incompatible interfaces. We discuss what it means for an adaptor to be well formed. Leveraging the information provided by protocols, we show how adaptors can be automatically generated from a high-level description, called an interface mapping.

Protocol specifications and component adaptors

Organizations increasingly need to build an enterprise-wide capability to leverage technology that is distributed in different business units. Some organizations establish enterprise architecture (EA) standards to enable greater compatibility of information technology (IT) components and integration of applications and data across the enterprise. Through a firm-level survey, we sought to answer two key questions about the use of EA standards: (1) How do different governance mechanisms affect the use of EA standards? and (2) To what extent does the use of EA standards help organizations to improve the sharing and integration of IT resources across the enterprise? We identified four key governance mechanisms for EA standards management and examined how each mechanism affected the use of EA standards. We also examined how the use of EA standards affects the management of IT infrastructure, applications, and data resources across business units. Our empirical results showed that the use of EA standards is effective in helping organizations to better manage their IT resources. Our study also provides detailed insights into how organizations can set up governance mechanisms to facilitate the use of EA standards in achieving enterprisewide goals.

/pdf/using-enterprise-architecture-standards-in-managing-4q9ze8fxzr.pdf

Using Enterprise Architecture Standards in Managing Information Technology

Device, system, and method of generating location-based social networks. For example, a method for dynamically creating location-based virtual social networks includes: detecting presence of a wireless device at a location which is associated with a location-based virtual social network; and sending to the wireless device an invitation to join said location-based virtual social network.

Device, System, and Method of Generating Location-Based Social Networks

In this paper we show how to augment object-oriented application interfaces with enhanced specifications that include sequencing constraints called protocols. Protocols make explicit the relationship between messages (methods) supported by the application. These relationships are usually only given implicitly, either in the code or in textual comments. We define notions of interface compatibility based upon protocols and show how compatibility can be checked, discovering a class of errors that cannot be discovered via the type system alone. We then define software adaptors that can be used to bridge the difference between object-oriented applications that have functionally compatible but type incompatible interfaces. We discuss what it means for an adaptor to be well-formed. Leveraging the information provided by protocols, we show how adaptors can be automatically generated from a high-level description, called an interface mapping.

Interfaces, protocols, and the semi-automatic construction of software adaptors

A system and method for tracking and synchronizing related data elements in disparate storage systems is provided. More particularly, the present invention provides a hub system for cross-referencing and maintaining storage system information for the efficient synchronization of related data elements in disparate storage systems.

Daniel M. Yellin

Papers

Protocol specifications and component adaptors

Using Enterprise Architecture Standards in Managing Information Technology

Device, System, and Method of Generating Location-Based Social Networks

Interfaces, protocols, and the semi-automatic construction of software adaptors

System and method for synchronizing related data elements in disparate storage systems