Component-Based Architecting for Distributed Real-Time Systems

In systems- and software architecting, architecture can be viewed as a high-level design that supports the construction of ICT-systems. Starting from a list of general requirements, the first part of this chapter gives an overview of the dimensions of such a design. In addition, the various, often contradicting, architectural views that are relevant for the various stakeholders are discussed. Special emphasis is given to the modeling of the system behavior and the dependability constraints. The second part of this chapter summarizes the requirements that binary components must fulfill in order to be composable in the context of dependable distributed real-time systems. Thereby, the emphasis is on timeliness and reliability. It is argued that in order to achieve composability, resource requirements and non-functional properties are of equal importance as functionality. In addition, the architectural styles that govern the interaction of components with their environment must be specified. A method for constructing the collective behavior of a set of components and achieving composability is sketched and demonstrated by means of an example.