A model transformation approach for the early performance and reliability analysis of component-based systems

Abstract

The adoption of a "high level" perspective in the design of a component-based application, without considering the specific features of some underlying supporting platform, has the advantage of focusing on the relevant architectural aspects and reasoning about them in a platform independent way, omitting unnecessary details that could even not be known at the earliest development stages. On the other hand, many of the details that are typically neglected in this high-level perspective must necessarily be taken into account to obtain a meaningful evaluation of different architectural choices in terms of extra-functional quality attributes, like performance or reliability. Toward the reconciliation of these two contrasting needs, we propose a model-based approach whose goal is to support the derivation of sufficiently detailed prediction models from high level models of component-based systems, focusing on the prediction of performance and reliability. We exploit for this purpose a refinement mechanism based on the use of model transformation techniques. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.