A Component Coordination Model Based on Mobile Channels

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Guillen-Scholten, Juan | Arbab, Farhad | de Boer, Frank | Bonsangue, Marcello

Affiliations: CWI, P.O. Box 94079, NL-1090 GB Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: {juan,farhad,frb}@cwi.nl | LIACS, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9512, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. E-mail: marcello@liacs.nl

Abstract: In this paper we present a coordination model for component-based software systems based on the notion of mobile channels, define it in terms of a compositional trace-based semantics, and describe its implementation in the Java language. Channels allow anonymous, and point-to-point communication among components, while mobility allows dynamic reconfiguration of channel connections in a system. This model supports dynamic distributed systems where components can be mobile. It provides an efficient way of interaction among components. Furthermore, our model provides a clear separation between the computational part and the coordination part of a system, allowing the development and description of the coordination structure of a system to be done in a transparent and exogenous manner. Our description of the Java implementation of this coordination model demonstrates that it is self-contained enough for developing component-based systems in object-oriented languages. However, if desired, our model can be used as a basis to extend other models that focus on other aspects of components that are less concerned with composition and coordination issues.

Journal: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 73, no. 4, pp. 561-582, 2006