Eduardo Silva

A mission-oriented approach for designing system-of-systems

In system-of-systems (SoS), a mission is an essential information that can guide the whole SoS development process. Through the so-called mission model, it is possible to identify required capabilities for the constituent system, operations, connections, emergent behavior, among other elements that characterize a SoS. Although the importance of missions for the SoS domain, the literature provides few proposals that focus on mission and none of them encompass a conceptual model for representing missions or a language to define mission models. In this paper, we present mKAOS, a language for SoS mission description that is based on a conceptual model for SoS missions. mKAOS organizes the mission-related information in a set of complementary models that allows a detailed description of mission information independent of implementation details. mKAOS also has an associated tool, mKAOS Studio, an open-source tool for modeling SoS missions using the mKAOS language.

PL-AspectualACME: an aspect-oriented architectural description language for software product lines

Software Product Line (SPL) development typically relies on feature models to represent the commonalities and variabilities of a family of software products. Although feature models play an important role in describing SPL elements, they are limited to provide high-level feature decompositions that do not explicitly represent the SPL architecture. To tackle this problem, we present PL-AspectualACME, an extension of the ACME architecture description language that enriches existing abstractions to express architectural variabilities. They support the specification of product variations without forcing architects to learn many new abstractions. We evaluate the applicability of our proposal in the context of a real large-scale system, the Ginga SPL architecture.

On the Characterization of Missions of Systems-of-Systems

A system-of-systems (SoS) can be understood as a set of complex, independent, heterogeneous constituent systems, which are composed to form a larger and more complex system aiming at accomplishing a given mission. Each constituent system accomplishes its own individual mission and is able to collaboratively contribute to the accomplishment of the global mission of the SoS. Despite the importance and central role played by missions in SoS, the current literature lacks of studies focused on analyzing such missions and their specificities. The existing initiatives are domain-specific and are still in an initial stage of development. In this context, the main goal of this paper is to present a study about how missions of SoS can be defined, specified, represented, and implemented. Due to the limitations of the existing proposals for SoS, we have performed a systematic mapping on missions of systems, in a broader extent, aiming at identifying elements that can be brought to SoS. In this paper, we discuss such elements related to missions and other important issues that must be considered when shifting from single and monolithic systems to SoS.

Refining missions to architectures in software-intensive systems-of-systems

An important concern in the design of a software-intensive system-of-systems (SoS) is modeling both global and individual missions to be accomplished by the SoS and its cooperating constituent systems. A first step towards the concretization of mission models is their refinement into architecture descriptions in terms of the constituents able to fulfill the established missions through emergent behaviors. In this context, we introduce M2Arch, a model-based process to refine mission models into architecture descriptions. M2Arch is concerned with the automatic generation of architecture descriptions in SosADL, a formal language to describe SoS software architectures, from mission models in mKAOS, a language to model missions. M2Arch also comes with an associated tool supporting both mission modeling and architecture description as well as validation and simulation of the resulting architectures.

Bridging Missions and Architecture in Software-Intensive Systems-of-Systems

Missions represent a key concern in the development of Systems-of-Systems (SoS) since they are related to both capabilities of constituent systems and interactions among these systems that contribute to the accomplishment of global goals of the SoS. In a mission-oriented approach to design software-intensive SoS, the activity towards the concretization of the mission model is its refinement to an architectural model. This paper addresses this synergetic relationship between mission and architectural models. As main contribution, we introduce a model-based refinement process supported by model-to-model transformations intended to apply mission models represented in mKAOS, a language to model missions, for automatically generating architecture descriptions in SosADL, a formal language to describe SoS software architectures.

A lightweight language for software product lines architecture description

The architecture description of a software product line (SPL) is essential to make it clear how the architecture realizes the feature model and to represent both the domain and application engineering architectural artefacts. However, most architecture description languages (ADLs) for SPL have limited support regarding variability management and they do not express the relationship between features and the architecture, besides the lack of tools for graphical and textual modelling and a non-clear separation between the domain and application engineering activities. In order to overcome these deficiencies, this paper presents LightPL-ACME, an ADL whose main goal is to be a simple, lightweight language for the SPL architecture description, and enable the association between the architectural specification and the artefacts involved in the SPL development process, including the relationship with the feature model and the representation of both domain and application engineering elements.

Taming missions and architecture in software intensive systems-of-systems

Integrating independent, heterogeneous constituent systems in a collaborative environment is one of the most challenging aspects of software-intensive systems-of-systems (SiSoS). Since the constituent systems are in constant evolution and are managerially and operationally independent, modeling the architecture of an SoS becomes an even more complex activity. The design process of such systems are based on the so-called mission models that describe the goals and other facets of an SoS. In previous works, we lowered the gap between the mission model and the architecture. This work goes further, enhancing the proposal by providing an SoS modeling environment that produces architecture from mission models and allows verification, validation, and simulation of the involved models.

RA-Ubi: A Reference Architecture for Ubiquitous Computing

Successful ubiquitous systems need to integrate several underlying technologies including different operating systems, advanced middleware, several Internet protocols, sensors, actuators, I/O drivers and many others elements. This scenario means that ubiquitous systems software should cope with different kinds of software/hardware components, programming languages, and interaction protocols. In order to easy software development in this heterogeneous context, software architecture elements provide high abstractions that hide the details of specific platforms. However, a clear and common understanding of the elements that compose a ubiquitous system architecture and their relationship is still missing. Reference Architectures have been used to provide a common ground and to give directions for the construction of software architectures for different classes of systems. In this paper, we propose RA-Ubi, a reference architecture for ubiquitous systems that was build based on PROSA-SA, a process for the establishment of new reference architectures. Following PROSA-SA’s steps, RA-Ubi defines the architectural requirements of ubiquitous systems by following the literature about this subject, applying literature systematic review technique. As main results, we present RA-Ubi reference architecture detailing the role of each element and their relationships.

Um Oásis Urbano: Dois Estudos das Interações Pessoa-Ambiente na Praça Kalina Maia, Natal/RN

Although several factors point to their current abandonment, public squares influence the quality of life in cities, contributing to urban microclimate and restoring people physical/mental equilibrium. This article presents two (independents) studies based on literature from Environmental Psychology and performed at the Kalina Maia Square (Natal/RN) in order to understand its use: one studied leisure activities; another, the socialization of elderly. In each study, field diary, interviews and behavioral observation (mapping or naturalistic) were used. The results revealed the use sectorization, showing, during the day, the presence of elderly, adults, teenagers and children that carry out several activities, especially sports – that predominate in ATI (where elderly area concentrated). We noted that if conditions are provided to support people leisure activities, public squares can still be urban oasis, promoting leisure and socialization. These findings can contribute to propose programs that encourage the use of these places and have influence in their design.