Risk modeling in distributed, large-scale systems

Risk is inherent in distributed, large-scale systems. The paper explores the challenges of risk modeling in such systems, and suggests a risk modeling approach that is responsive to the requirements of complex, distributed, large-scale systems. An example of the use of the approach in the marine transportation system is given. The paper concludes with a discussion of limitations of the approach and of future work     

协同方式下大型工业设备训练软件开发研究

讨论一个以PC机为开发环境,综合运用视觉、听觉等多媒体手段于一体的大型工业设备训练软件的开发过程。通过对需求的深入分析,给出了建立该类软件数学模型的方法和软件设计时的关键技术,并且给出了一种软件开发中消息通信字的结构及其在系统同步中的运用。最后采用面向对象软件工程中的事件对象图表示了该系统的动态运行过程。     

A multi-agent methodology for multi-level modeling of mechatronic systems

Mechatronic design aims to integrate the models developed during the mechatronic design process, in order to be able to optimize the overall mechatronic system performance. A lot of work has been done in the last few years by researchers and software developers to achieve this objective. However, the level of integration does not yet meet the purposes of mechatronic system designers, particularly when dealing with modeling changes. Therefore, new methodologies are required to manage the multi-view complexity of mechatronic design. In this paper, we propose a multi-agent methodology for the multi-abstraction modeling issue of mechatronic systems. The major contribution deals with proposing a new method for the decomposition of the multi-level design into agents linked with relationships. Each agent is representing an abstraction level and both agent and relationships are managed with rules. By considering an application to a piezoelectric energy harvesting system, we show how we associate agents, rules and inter-level relationships to multi-abstraction modeling. We also show how modeling errors are identified using this approach.     

Secure processor architecture modeling for large-scale systems

This paper describes the architecture defects of existing hardware platforms have been analyzed. These defects allow software vulnerabilities exploitation. The authors propose to solve this problem by building a processor with secure-by-design architecture. Requirements for such a processor are formulated within this paper. Also the authors describe the application of virtualization technology to model the existing processor and to use this model to demonstrate proposed approach.     

Prototype of fault adaptive embedded software for large-scale real-time systems

This paper describes a comprehensive prototype of large-scale fault adaptive embedded software developed for the proposed Fermilab BTeV high energy physics experiment. Lightweight self-optimizing agents embedded within Level 1 of the prototype are responsible for proactive and reactive monitoring and mitigation based on specified layers of competence. The agents are self-protecting, detecting cascading failures using a distributed approach. Adaptive, reconfigurable, and mobile objects for reliablility are designed to be self-configuring to adapt automatically to dynamically changing environments. These objects provide a self-healing layer with the ability to discover, diagnose, and react to discontinuities in real-time processing. A generic modeling environment was developed to facilitate design and implementation of hardware resource specifications, application data flow, and failure mitigation strategies. Level 1 of the planned BTeV trigger system alone will consist of 2500 DSPs, so the number of components and intractable fault scenarios involved make it impossible to design an ‘expert system’ that applies traditional centralized mitigative strategies based on rules capturing every possible system state. Instead, a distributed reactive approach is implemented using the tools and methodologies developed by the Real-Time Embedded Systems group.     

A large-scale study of architectural evolution in open-source software systems

From its very inception, the study of software architecture has recognized architectural decay as a regularly occurring phenomenon in long-lived systems. Architectural decay is caused by repeated, sometimes careless changes to a system during its lifespan. Despite decay’s prevalence, there is a relative dearth of empirical data regarding the nature of architectural changes that may lead to decay, and of developers’ understanding of those changes. In this paper, we take a step toward addressing that scarcity by introducing an architecture recovery framework, ARCADE, for conducting large-scale replicable empirical studies of architectural change across different versions of a software system. ARCADE includes two novel architectural change metrics, which are the key to enabling large-scale empirical studies of architectural change. We utilize ARCADE to conduct an empirical study of changes found in software architectures spanning several hundred versions of 23 open-source systems. Our study reveals several new findings regarding the frequency of architectural changes in software systems, the common points of departure in a system’s architecture during the system’s maintenance and evolution, the difference between system-level and component-level architectural change, and the suitability of a system’s implementation-level structure as a proxy for its architecture.     

3D solid modeling software development for industrial and academic purposes

This paper describes the main features of ADROS System: The 2D module DDC (Design and Drafting by Computer) and the 3D module SM (Solid Modeler).     

The importance of business process modeling in software systems design

Despite diligent efforts made by the software engineering community, the failure of software projects keeps increasing at an alarming rate. After two decades of this problem reoccurring, one of the leading causes for the high failure rate is still poor process modeling (requirements’ specification). Therefore both researchers and practitioners recognize the importance of business process modeling in understanding and designing accurate software systems. However, lack of direct model checking (verification) feature is one of the main shortcomings in conventional process modeling methods. It is important that models provide verifiable insight into underlying business processes in order to design complex software systems such as Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). The software engineering community has been deploying the same methods that have haunted the industry with failure. In this paper, we try to remedy this issue by looking at a non-conventional framework. We introduce a business process modeling method that is amenable to automatic analysis (simulation), yet powerful enough to capture the rich reality of business systems as enacted in the behavior and interactions of users. The proposed method is based on the innovative language-action perspective.     

基于背景建模与特征匹配的工业烟尘图像分割方法

针对工业烟尘在图像分割过程中容易受到背景中运动干扰物、复杂场景环境的影响,提出了一种基于背景建模与特征匹配的工业烟尘图像分割方法.通过建立背景模型并对背景进行实时更新,构造出准确的背景图像;通过差分累积出烟尘动态区域,采用形态学填充的方法,得到粗分割烟尘区域,通过特征匹配的方法,去除干扰,得到相对完整的烟尘分割区域;对实际钢铁行业的烟尘排放视频进行验证实验,并与其他分割方法进行了对比,结果表明:所提方法能够较好地区分出背景干扰物和烟尘,能够相对完整地分割烟尘区域,具有一定的适用性和抗干扰能力和较好的实用性.     

Editorial to theme section on open environmental software systems modeling

Software and Systems Modeling - This theme section aims to disseminate the latest research results in the area of open environmental software systems modeling. Software-intensive systems, such as...     

Using the k-core decomposition to analyze the static structure of large-scale software systems

The structures of large-scale software systems are complex and difficult to understand for designers and developers. Traditional software metrics can hardly describe the structural complexity in modern software, and finding a quantitative method to depict and analyze large-scale software is still a challenge. In this paper we use complex networks theory to study software structure; in particular, we visualize the software graph and use the k-core to study it based on a recursive pruning of the least connected vertices. Different types of software are analyzed and some new noticeable properties are found, such as similar coreness, the vital highest core, high-core connecting tendency, and evolution stability. These features suggest that software is organized in a defined hierarchy of increasing centrality from outside to inside. The k-core analysis can help developers to improve software understanding, instruction test, and measurement and evaluation of the system in development.     

A high performance framework for modeling and simulation of large-scale complex systems

Due to the quick advances in the scale of problem domain of complex systems under investigation, the complexity of multi-input component models used to construct logical processes (LP) has significantly increased. High-performance computing technologies have therefore been extensively used to enable parallel simulation execution. However, the traditional multi-process parallel method (MPM) executes LPs in parallel on multi-core platforms, which ignores the intrinsic parallel capabilities of multi-input component models. In this study, a vectorized component model (VCM) framework has been proposed. The design aims to better utilize the parallelism of multi-input component models. A two-level composite parallel method (CPM) has then been constructed within the framework, which can sustain complex system simulation applications consisting of multi-input component models. CPM first employs MPM to dispatch LPs onto a multi-core computing platform. It then maps VCMs to the multiple-core platform for parallel execution. Experimental results indicate that (1) the proposed VCM framework can better utilize the parallelism of multi-input component models, and (2) CPM can significantly improve the performance comparing to the traditional MPM. The results also show that CPM can effectively cope with the size and complexity of complex simulation applications with multi-input component models.     

Multifunctional software systems: Structured modeling and specification of functional requirements

This paper deals with the structured specification of interface behavior of multifunctional systems, which are systems that offer a variety of functions for different purposes and use cases. It introduces a theory and first concepts of a methodology for the identification, structured modeling, and formalization of functional requirements of multifunctional systems. Service hierarchies specify multifunctional systems in terms of their provided sub-functions called services together with their mutual relationships and dependencies. A service hierarchy describes the functionality of multifunctional systems in a structured way. Each service is specified independently and the specification is added to the service hierarchy. Modes help to specify the feature interactions and by that functional dependencies between the services. The approach is based on the Focus theory for modeling interface behavior and services.     

云环境下大规模软件架构技术研究

云计算的兴起和发展不仅引发了IT领域的变革,而且引发了各个领域对其的研究热潮,进而引发了一系列的云计算产品,元计算产品的大量涌现对云计算自身及网络的安全性和可靠性提出了新的要求.传统的软件结构也随着云计算的快速发展和广泛应用发生了一定的变化,这些变化主要体现在软件架构的三层结构上.     

Evaluating changes in group stability for large-scale industrial systems in a crisis situation

Using the fundamentals of nonlinear dynamics (with the ergodic hypothesis and modified Poincare’s transversal plane method), by the data drawn from a “passive” experiment we evaluate the changes of group stability for large-scale industrial systems (iron and steel companies) during the process of coping with the aftermath of the economic and financial crisis of 2008–2009.     

The lean gap: A review of lean approaches to large-scale software systems development

Lean approaches to product development (LPD) have had a strong influence on many industries and in recent years there have been many proponents for lean in software development as it can support the increasing industry need of scaling agile software development. With it's roots in industrial manufacturing and, later, industrial product development, it would seem natural that LPD would adapt well to large-scale development projects of increasingly software-intensive products, such as in the automotive industry. However, it is not clear what kind of experience and results have been reported on the actual use of lean principles and practices in software development for such large-scale industrial contexts. This was the motivation for this study as the context was an ongoing industry process improvement project at Volvo Car Corporation and Volvo Truck Corporation.     

Preprocessor-based variability in open-source and industrial software systems: An empirical study

Almost every sufficiently complex software system today is configurable. Conditional compilation is a simple variability-implementation mechanism that is widely used in open-source projects and industry. Especially, the C preprocessor (CPP) is very popular in practice, but it is also gaining (again) interest in academia. Although there have been several attempts to understand and improve CPP, there is a lack of understanding of how it is used in open-source and industrial systems and whether different usage patterns have emerged. The background is that much research on configurable systems and product lines concentrates on open-source systems, simply because they are available for study in the first place. This leads to the potentially problematic situation that it is unclear whether the results obtained from these studies are transferable to industrial systems. We aim at lowering this gap by comparing the use of CPP in open-source projects and industry—especially from the embedded-systems domain—based on a substantial set of subject systems and well-known variability metrics, including size, scattering, and tangling metrics. A key result of our empirical study is that, regarding almost all aspects we studied, the analyzed open-source systems and the considered embedded systems from industry are similar regarding most metrics, including systems that have been developed in industry and made open source at some point. So, our study indicates that, regarding CPP as variability-implementation mechanism, insights, methods, and tools developed based on studies of open-source systems are transferable to industrial systems—at least, with respect to the metrics we considered.     

Security patterns modeling and formalization for pattern-based development of secure software systems

Pattern-based development of software systems has gained more attention recently by addressing new challenges such as security and dependability. However, there are still gaps in existing modeling languages and/or formalisms dedicated to modeling design patterns and the way how to reuse them in the automation of software development. The solution envisaged here is based on combining metamodeling techniques and formal methods to represent security patterns at two levels of abstraction to fostering reuse. The goal of the paper is to advance the state of the art in model and pattern-based security for software and systems engineering in three relevant areas: (1) develop a modeling language to support the definition of security patterns using metamodeling techniques; (2) provide a formal representation and its associated validation mechanisms for the verification of security properties; and (3) derive a set of guidelines for the modeling of security patterns within the integration of these two kinds of representations.