Component-based Software Research Articles

Legacy Components Stability Assessment and Ranking using Software Maturity Index

Component-based software modernization is technique that is widely accepted to have the greatest potentials in restructuring legacy applications into modernized versions with best qualities and maintainability attributes amongst other modernization techniques. This technique relies greatly on stable components extracted from the legacy system and selected for reuse. In selecting the components, some reusability attributes are usually considered of which components stability is one of such. However, the task of selecting stable components for reuse especially from legacy applications is a very difficult one due to inadequate techniques and models specifically designed for this. This research therefore, presents a technique for assessing the stability of components extracted from legacy applications using software maturity index. It also provides a means of ranking the assessed components with a scale comprising of Highly Stable, Fairly Stable, Stable, Unstable, Fairly Unstable and Highly Unstable to guide the choice of quality and stable components for reuse in modernization. The research further emphasizes the importance of proper software maintenance data recording from one version to another as such is a major requirement for legacy components reusability assessment.

Application of fuzzy-MOORA method: Ranking of components for reliability estimation of component-based software systems

Article history: Received April 16, 2015 Received in revised format: June 12, 2015 Accepted June 21, 2015 Available online June 25 2015 Component-based software system (CBSS) development technique is an emerging discipline that promises to take software development into a new era. As hardware systems are presently being constructed from kits of parts, software systems may also be assembled from components. It is more reliable to reuse software than to create. It is the glue code and individual components reliability that contribute to the reliability of the overall system. Every component contributes to overall system reliability according to the number of times it is being used, some components are of critical usage, known as usage frequency of component. The usage frequency decides the weight of each component. According to their weights, each component contributes to the overall reliability of the system. Therefore, ranking of components may be obtained by analyzing their reliability impacts on overall application. In this paper, we propose the application of fuzzy multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis, Fuzzy-MOORA. The method helps us find the best suitable alternative, software component, from a set of available feasible alternatives named software components. It is an accurate and easy to understand tool for solving multi-criteria decision making problems that have imprecise and vague evaluation data. By the use of ratio analysis, the proposed method determines the most suitable alternative among all possible alternatives, and dimensionless measurement will realize the job of ranking of components for estimating CBSS reliability in a non-subjective way. Finally, three case studies are shown to illustrate the use of the proposed technique. Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 6 © 201

Towards measurement of structural complexity for ontologies

Ontologies represent knowledge of a particular domain and form an elementary unit for inference techniques on the semantic web. It is important to measure the complexity of ontologies in order for users to better understand, maintain, reuse and integrate them. Existing measures for the complexity of an ontology either handle complexity at schema and instance levels or define subjective parameters to measure ontology complexity. To this end, we present a semi-automated framework to measure the structural complexity at different abstraction levels of an ontology. Moreover, our metrics leverage the information provided by ontology editors, which can be useful to the ontology designer for selection of the ontology with optimum complexity among alternative ontologies. Our framework is inspired by the concept of component-based software complexity metrics and its metrics have been validated against Briand's and Weyuker's benchmarks. We have also performed comparative analysis on public ontologies.

Formally specifying the RT-Component framework standard's port connection process

The Robot Technology Component standard forms the basis on which several component-based software frameworks for robotics are built, including OpenRTM-aist. In order to have confidence that the software framework will function as expected, we require confidence that this standard is a correct description of the expected functionality. In this article, we present a formal verification of one part of the RT-Component standard's functionality. We use the TLA+ formal specification language to specify and model-check the algorithm used to connect ports. Our specification and model-checking results show that, as expected for this relatively simple algorithm, it correctly connects the specified ports only and does not interfere with other ports. Additionally, this formal specification can serve as a clearer specification of the expected RT-Component-based framework functionality than the informal and UML-based descriptions given in the original standard document.

RAGE Architecture for Reusable Serious Gaming Technology Components

For seizing the potential of serious games, the RAGE project—funded by the Horizon-2020 Programme of the European Commission—will make available an interoperable set of advanced technology components (software assets) that support game studios at serious game development. This paper describes the overall software architecture and design conditions that are needed for the easy integration and reuse of such software assets in existing game platforms. Based on the component-based software engineering paradigm the RAGE architecture takes into account the portability of assets to different operating systems, different programming languages, and different game engines. It avoids dependencies on external software frameworks and minimises code that may hinder integration with game engine code. Furthermore it relies on a limited set of standard software patterns and well-established coding practices. The RAGE architecture has been successfully validated by implementing and testing basic software assets in four major programming languages (C#, C++, Java, and TypeScript/JavaScript, resp.). Demonstrator implementation of asset integration with an existing game engine was created and validated. The presented RAGE architecture paves the way for large scale development and application of cross-engine reusable software assets for enhancing the quality and diversity of serious gaming.

Pattern-Based Coarse-Grained Component Modelling for Enterprise Application Software Developing

To improve the efficiency of ESA (Enterprise Application Software) development, component-based software development is a good solution. However, though those general software components, like JavaBean, COM/COM+ (Component Object Model), are maturely used to develop ESAs, it is still too inefficient to industrialize ESA development. This is because design of software component has a tightly correlation with the inner structure of an ESA and should not be independent from architecture of ESA. By analysing software patterns and characteristics, a business component (BC) modelling based on pattern is proposed first. Then a BC scheduling pattern and an executable workflow model are presented to show the principle by which BCs are organized and scheduled. The proposed method is a PSM (Platform-Specific Model) modelling which a part of MDA (Model-Driven Architecture) based framework. Finally, a case is showed that our method can provide theoretical and practical significance to the development software of ESA.

변경 용이성 증대를 위한 컴포넌트 기반의 건설공정관리시스템

The construction process and safety management are an important means of the total projects for the decision-making. As an important management tool of cost, resources and risks of the project, the analysis and evaluations are recorded as an important asset of company. Also, it has become a safety device that could reduce risk factors repeatedly by the decision-making methods for the future similar projects. Component-based software, by reusing the useful part, which was prepared without newly developing all that, by building a new software product, the long-term continuous/steady through the provision of a component-based software, by securing a sales base, it should be the development and supply a wide range of applications. In this paper, we propose the construction process control systems for increasing modifiability of process creation and modification for business efficiency in accordance with the diverse trends in the construction process as a low-cost niche through a component-based software supplier to solve these problems.

Safe reconfiguration of Coqcots and Pycots components

Software systems have to face evolutions of their running context and users. Therefore, the so-called dynamic reconfiguration has been commonly adopted for modifying some components and/or the architecture at runtime. Traditional approaches typically stop the needed components, apply the changes, and restart the components. However, this scheme is not suitable for critical systems and degrades user experience. This paper proposes to switch from the stop/restart scheme to dynamic software updating(DSU) techniques. Instead of stopping a component, its implementation is replaced by another one specifically built to apply the modifications while maintaining the best quality of service possible. The major contributions of this work are: (i) the integration of DSU techniques in a component model; (ii) a reconfiguration development process including specification, proof of correctness using Coq, and; (iii) a systematic method to produce the executable script. In this perspective, the use of DSU techniques brings higher quality of service when reconfiguring component-based software. Moreover, the formalization allows ensuring the safety and consistency of the reconfiguration process.

An Evolution of Test Case Prioritization Techniques

case prioritization is the way of arranging the test cases on the basis of same defined criteria so that fault detection may be made as earlier as possible and hence cut down the cost incur during testing process. Due to day by day increasing complexity of the software system, a lot of test cases are required to execute for effective validation and verification that adds to cost and time. Any prioritization technique schedules the test cases in the way that runs the test cases with higher priority before the test cases with lower priority. Present paper gives a comparative overview of various criteria, techniques and methods used for test cases prioritization for the component based software system from the year 1999 to present.

Software Reliability Estimation of Component based Software System using Fuzzy Logic

Software Reliability Modeling has been one of the muchattracted research domains in Software Reliability Engineering. Software reliability means provide reusable, less complex software, to perform a set of successful operation and his function within a provided time and environment. Software designers are motivated to develop reliable, reusable and useful software. In past, Object-Oriented Programming System (OOPS) concept is to be used in purpose of reusability but they are not providing powerful to cope with the successive changing as per requirements of ongoing applications. After that Component Based Software system (CBSS) is in floor. IT is based on reusability of his component with less complexity. This paper presents a new approach to analyze the reusability, dependency, and operation profile as well as application complexity of component-based software system. Here, we apply Fuzzy Logic approach to estimate the reliability of component-based software system with the basis of reliability factor.

Twenty-eight years of component-based software engineering

The idea of developing software components was envisioned more than forty years ago. In the past two decades, Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) has emerged as a distinguishable approach in software engineering, and it has attracted the attention of many researchers, which has led to many results being published in the research literature. There is a huge amount of knowledge encapsulated in conferences and journals targeting this area, but a systematic analysis of that knowledge is missing. For this reason, we aim to investigate the state-of-the-art of the CBSE area through a detailed literature review. To do this, 1231 studies dating from 1984 to 2012 were analyzed. Using the available evidence, this paper addresses five dimensions of CBSE: main objectives, research topics, application domains, research intensity and applied research methods. The main objectives found were to increase productivity, save costs and improve quality. The most addressed application domains are homogeneously divided between commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS), distributed and embedded systems. Intensity of research showed a considerable increase in the last fourteen years. In addition to the analysis, this paper also synthesizes the available evidence, identifies open issues and points out areas that call for further research.

Formal Reasoning Using an Iterative Approach with an Integrated Web IDE

This paper summarizes our experience in communicating the elements of reasoning about correctness, and the central role of formal specifications in reasoning about modular, component-based software using a language and an integrated Web IDE designed for the purpose. Our experience in using such an IDE, supported by a 'push-button' verifying compiler in a classroom setting, reveals the highly iterative process learners use to arrive at suitably specified, automatically provable code. We explain how the IDE facilitates reasoning at each step of this process by providing human readable verification conditions (VCs) and feedback from an integrated prover that clearly indicates unprovable VCs to help identify obstacles to completing proofs. The paper discusses the IDE's usage in verified software development using several examples drawn from actual classroom lectures and student assignments to illustrate principles of design-by-contract and the iterative process of creating and subsequently refining assertions, such as loop invariants in object-based code.

Performance measurement of models specified through component-based software architectural styles

Designing scalable and executable architectural models has a particular importance in software system development, because it allows evaluating different functional and non-functional properties of a designed system at a high level of abstraction. Measuring the performance related properties at the architectural level and before implementation, is very important while designing complex software systems. In this paper, using component-based software architectural styles specified through graph transformation systems, we propose an approach to performance measurement and analysis of software architectural models. To do so, we enrich the style with performance and timing information. Then, we propose the necessary algorithms for transforming architectural models into PEPA (Performance Evaluation Process Algebra). PEPA provides the measurement of performance metrics such as utilization of different software components and throughput. This paper proposes an efficient algorithm for model transformation. The proposed approach solves the state space explosion problem which was occurred in our previous work by generating PEPA models from the host graph instead of state space. The accuracy of this approach and other concepts are illustrated through ‘e-map router’ case study.

A thermo-mechanically coupled finite strain model considering inelastic heat generation

The procedure for reuse of finite element method (FEM) programs for heat transfer and structure analysis to solve advanced thermo-mechanical problems is presented as powerful algorithm applicable for coupling of other physical fields (magnetic, fluid flow, etc.). In this case, nonlinear Block-Gauss–Seidel partitioned algorithm strongly couples the heat transfer and structural FEM programs by a component-based software engineering. Component template library provides possibility to exchange the data between the components which solve the corresponding subproblems. The structural component evaluates the dissipative energy induced by inelastic strain. The heat transfer component computes the temperature change due to the dissipation. The convergence is guaranteed by posing the global convergence criterion on the previously locally converged coupled variables. This enables reuse of software and allows the numerical simulation of thermo-sensitive problems.

Simulation of Allocation of Reliability in Component based System

The reliability allocation and minimum cost of component in a system can be used to solve the allocation problems in components based systems as well as applicable to modular systems. A method is simulated for allocating reliability to each component of a system with a view to minimizing the system cost on specific reliability. There is a need for component developer and users to make these data available to reliability estimator so that the derived results are usefully applied to practical systems. The simulation to show near optimal solution to the problem of selecting the component and comprising the software can be obtained with minimum cost. We simulate different sizes of components and their reliability with minimum cost in a system. Finally we give the importance of how to select reliability and cost of each component in Component-based software.

Robustness Analysis of an Aircraft Design for Short Takeoff and Landing

As part of the Collaborative Research Center 880, preliminary aircraft design activities are carried out for a new class of low-noise cruise-efficient short takeoff and landing (CESTOL) transport aircraft. A corresponding aircraft is quite different from a state-of-the-art commercial aircraft because of the use of a high-lift system with active flow control. The fact that new technologies are not sufficiently understood yet in combination with the assumption of common design data and the use of classical calculation methods expresses itself in uncertainties that are of epistemic character. The robustness of a deterministic CESTOL aircraft design toward parameters such as the necessary engine thrust, direct operating costs, and the maximum takeoff and landing distances is investigated here concerning the mentioned uncertainties. For this purpose, a stochastic description of parameter variations of the design is formulated. Stochastic quantities are computed by Monte Carlo sampling to rate the robustness. A distributed component-based software implementation is used to perform the Monte Carlo sampling. The software system is installed on a Linux cluster with several multi-CPU computers; a deterministic sample is simulated through the design program PrADO.

Development of a Cognitive Robotic System for Simple Surgical Tasks

The introduction of robotic surgery within the operating rooms has significantly improved the quality of many surgical procedures. Recently, the research on medical robotic systems focused on increasing the level of autonomy in order to give them the possibility to carry out simple surgical actions autonomously. This paper reports on the development of technologies for introducing automation within the surgical workflow. The results have been obtained during the ongoing FP7 European funded project Intelligent Surgical Robotics (I-SUR). The main goal of the project is to demonstrate that autonomous robotic surgical systems can carry out simple surgical tasks effectively and without major intervention by surgeons. To fulfil this goal, we have developed innovative solutions (both in terms of technologies and algorithms) for the following aspects: fabrication of soft organ models starting from CT images, surgical planning and execution of movement of robot arms in contact with a deformable environment, designing a surgical interface minimizing the cognitive load of the surgeon supervising the actions, intra-operative sensing and reasoning to detect normal transitions and unexpected events. All these technologies have been integrated using a component-based software architecture to control a novel robot designed to perform the surgical actions under study. In this work we provide an overview of our system and report on preliminary results of the automatic execution of needle insertion for the cryoablation of kidney tumours.

Issues and Concerns In Software Component Selection

The increasing availability of COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) components in the market of software development has concretized the opportunity of building whole systems based on previously built components. Component- Based Software Engineering (CBSE) is an approach which is used to improve efficiency and productivity of software system with the help of reusability. CBSE approach improves software development productivity and software quality by selecting pre-existing software components. Reusability in Component-Based Software Development (CBSD) not only reduces the time to market in development but also brings the cost down of development heavily. This paper represents the challenges which are faced by software developer during component selection like reliability, time, components size, fault tolerance, performance, components functionality and components compatibility. This paper also summarizes algorithms used for component retrieval according to availability of component subset.

When user modeling intersects software engineering: the info-bead user modeling approach

User models (UMs) allow systems to provide personalized services to their users. Nowadays, UMs are developed ad-hoc, as part of specific applications, thus requiring repetitive development efforts. In this paper, we propose the info-bead user modeling approach, which is based on ideas taken from software engineering in general and component-based software development in particular. The basic standalone unit, the info-bead, represents a single user attribute within time-tagged information-items. An info-bead encapsulates an inference process that uses data received from sensors or other info-beads and yields an information-item value. Having standard interfaces, info-beads can be linked, thus creating info-pendants. Both info-beads and info-pendants can be assembled as needed into complex and abstract user models (UMs) and group models (GMs). The goal of the suggested approach is to ease the modeling process and to allow reuse of info beads developed for one UM in other UMs that need the same information. In order to assess the reusability and collaboration capabilities of the info-bead user modeling approach, we developed a prototype tool that enables UM designers, who are not necessarily software developers, to easily select and integrate info-beads for constructing UMs and GMs. We further demonstrated the use of the approach in a museum environment, for modeling of assistive technology ontology and for user modeling in various specific domains. Finally, we analyzed and assessed the characteristics of the approach with respect to existing generic user modeling criteria.

Designing and Reporting on Computational Experiments of Multi-objective Component Selection Algorithm

One important issue of component-based software development is the minimization of the development cost and the maximization of the system reliability while satisfying functional requirements. There are numerous publications on this issue based on metaheuristic techniques, but there are two deficiencies: too tough to evaluate the performance of algorithms and fix parameters in the real-world application. To address this problem, a three phased algorithm is proposed by the Wu et al. [International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making5 (2011) 811–841]. This paper describes computational experience in solving the problems using the metaheuristics and the proposed algorithm. The results indicate the efficiency of the proposed algorithms in terms of overall nondominated vector generation, well converged set of solutions, and diversity of solutions. Computational results and simulation analysis further assist a decision maker to fix optimal parameters of metaheuristics including the number of iteration, crossover rate, and mutation rate, and explore hints in using metaheuristics for the problem.