A domain specific modeling language supporting specification, simulation and execution of dynamic adaptive systems

Abstract

Constructing and executing distributed systems that can automatically adapt to the dynamic changes of the environment are highly complex tasks. Non-trivial challenges include provisioning of efficient design time and run time representations, system validation to ensure safe adaptation of interdependent components, and scalable solutions to cope with the possible combinatorial explosions of adaptive system artifacts such as configurations, variant dependencies and adaptation rules. These are all challenges where current approaches offer only partial solutions. Furthermore, in current approaches the adaptation logic is typically specified at the code level, tightly coupled with the main system functionality, making it hard to control and maintain. This paper presents a domain specific modeling language (DSML) allowing specification of the adaptation logic at the model level, and separation of the adaptation logic from the main system functionality. It supports model-checking and design-time simulation for early validation of adaptation policies. The model level specifications are used to generate the adaptation logic. The DSML also provides indirection mechanisms to cope with combinatorial explosions of adaptive system artifacts. The proposed approach has been implemented and validated through case studies. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.