Subhav Pradhan, Abhishek Dubey, William R Otte, Gabor Karsai, Aniruddha Gokhale
2015
Next-generation distributed systems require flexible management of heterogeneous components from multiple vendors operating in dynamic environments. This work is innovative because it extends traditional software product line concepts to distributed systems where components can dynamically join and leave. The feature model enables capturing domain-specific requirements while supporting runtime adaptation.
This technical report describes UMRELA, a conceptual feature model for distributed applications that enables product line engineering of heterogeneous systems. The work presents a systematic approach to capturing variability and commonality across distributed applications through universal feature modeling. The methodology includes configuration management framework (AMF) and application management tools for managing dynamic deployment and reconfiguration of distributed systems.
UMRELA successfully represents feature models for distributed applications with varying unit of composition characteristics. The configuration management framework enables specification of initial configuration points and calculation of new configurations at runtime. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of managing distributed application variability through feature model-based abstractions.
@techreport{Pradhan2015a,
author = {Pradhan, Subhav and Dubey, Abhishek and Otte, William R and Karsai, Gabor and Gokhale, Aniruddha},
institution = {Institute for Software Integrated Systems, Vanderbilt University},
title = {Towards a Product Line of Heterogeneous Distributed Applications},
year = {2015},
address = {Nashville},
month = {4/2015},
number = {ISIS-15-117},
type = {Technical Report},
abstract = {Next generation large-scale distributed systems {\textendash} such as smart cities {\textendash} are dynamic, heterogeneous and multi-domain in nature. The same is true for applications hosted on these systems. Application heterogeneity stems from their Unit of Composition (UoC); some applications might be coarse-grained and composed from processes or actors, whereas others might be fine-grained and composed from software components. Software components can further amplify heterogeneity since there exists different component models for different domains. Lifecycle management of such distributed, heterogeneous applications is a considerable challenge. In this paper, we solve this problem by reasoning about these systems as a Software Product Line (SPL) where individual dimensions of heterogeneity can be considered as product variants. To enable such reasoning, first, we present UMRELA (Universal feature-Model for distRibutEd appLicAtions), a conceptual feature model that identifies commonalities and variability points for capturing and representing distributed applications and their target system. This results in a product line of a family of distributed applications. UMRELA facilitates representation of initial configuration point, and the configuration space of the system. The latter represents all possible states the system can reach and is used as an implicit encoding to calculate new configuration points at runtime. Second, we present a prototype Application Management Framework (AMF) as a proof of concept configuration management tool that uses UMRELA to manage heterogeneous distributed applications.},
attachments = {http://www.isis.vanderbilt.edu/sites/default/files/TechReport2013.pdf},
contribution = {minor},
file = {:Pradhan2015a-Towards_a_product_line_of_heterogeneous_distributed_applications.pdf:PDF},
issn = {ISIS-15-117},
keywords = {software product lines, distributed systems, feature models, configuration management, heterogeneous applications},
owner = {abhishek},
timestamp = {2015.10.16},
url = {http://www.isis.vanderbilt.edu/sites/default/files/Pradhan_SEAMS_TechReport.pdf}
}