TOWARD ENHANCING REUSABILITY OF COMPONENT MIDDLEWARE DSMLS USING GENERALIZATION AND STEP-WISE REFINEMENT

• Main Author: NEEMA, RITESH
• Other Authors: Dr. Jules White
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: VANDERBILT 2010
• Subjects: Computer Science
• Online Access: http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-04082010-164912/

Standardized component middleware technologies, such as CORBA Component Model (CCM), Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), and Component Object Model (COM) are used to build large Distributed Real-time and Embedded (DRE) systems. A key requirement of these middleware is that they remain highly flexible and support a large number of features since they have to be applicable to a wide range of domains and applications. To enhance flexibility of component middleware technologies, there exist Domain Specific Modeling Languages (DSMLS), such as Platform Independent Component Modeling Language (PICML) and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition Modeling Language (J2EEML), that can be used to apply Model-driven Engineering (MDE) approach to DRE systems for different platforms. However, several challenges remain with using these DSMLs including reusability, simplification, and automation. This thesis provides the following contributions to the development of component-based DRE systems using DSMLs. First, it describes the generalization of the component middleware DSMLs using Commonality/Variability Analysis and developing of a Generic Component Modeling Language (GCML), which is a DSML that enables the developer to define the component modeling features at a very high-level abstraction. Second, it describes the step-wise refinement technique using GCML model, graphical user interface, and interpreters to generate the platform specific model. This paper shows that the capabilities provided by approach used will reduce the efforts in development and migration of the application models while technology refreshed by increasing the level of abstraction, by using step-wise refinement for the development process including model transformation, and by enhancing reusability of component middleware DSMLs, thereby provides significant benefits with respect to reusability, simplification, and automation of the MDE approach.