Integrating middleware for timely reconfiguration of distributed soft real-time systems with Ada DSA

Abstract

Soft real-time distributed systems are dynamic in nature which poses a number of challenges to their time-deterministic behavior. The communication links between their remote parts are also a source of temporal uncertainty that requires thorough architecting to minimize these undesired effects. Currently, enhanced middleware have appeared for soft real-time domains to support time-bounded reconfiguration capabilities; timely reconfiguration is, however, a futuristic approach for open systems, but it is at the moment possible in a restricted distributed system model. In this paper, we present the adaptation of one of these futuristic middleware implementations, iLAND, to Ada DSA; a vertical real-time platform is presented that allows interoperability between a distributed soft real-time iLAND network and distributed Ada programs. This idea has been implemented and validated in a PolyORB/QNX environment. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.