Ada-CCM: Component-Based Technology for Distributed Real-Time Systems

This paper proposes a technology for the development of distributed real-time component-based applications, which takes advantage of the features that Ada offers for the development of applications with predictable temporal behaviour, and which can be executed in embedded platforms with limited resources. The technology uses the Deployment and Configuration of Compo nent-based Distributed Applications Specification of the OMG for describing the components, the execution platforms and the applications. The framework defined in the Lightweight CCM standard of the OMG is taken as the basis of the internal architecture of the components and the applications. It has been extended with a number of features to make the temporal behaviour of the appli cations predictable. Among these extensions, the usage of CORBA has been replaced by special distributed components, called connectors, which implement the interaction between components by means of predictable and customizable communication services. Besides, special mechanisms have been introduced in the environment to make the threading characteristics of the components config urable. The technology fixes the responsibilities and the knowledge required by each actor involved in the component-based development process, and for each of them it defines the input and output artifacts that they have to manage.