Towards a descriptive approach to model adaptable communication environments

Abstract

One of the main challenges in the telecommunication sector has been to devise communication environments that allows: (i) the integration of a multitude of different services in a single and efficient communication system, and (ii) the rapid and easy creation, modification and continuous adaptation to new demands and conditions. In this paper, we present a recursive-structuring model that gives adequate support for defining both communication environments and their adaptation mechanisms. Second, we propose the use of frameworks as powerful artifacts that can help a service designer delineate common abstractions that appear within any communication environment, allowing design reuse. Finally, we discuss the role of software architecture, and more precisely of ADLs, as an appropriate way to describe communication environments according to the model and frameworks mentioned above.