Towards reusable real-time objects

  • Authors:

  • Brian Nielsen;Gul Agha

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University, Fredrik Bajersvej 7E, DK‐9220 Aalborg, Denmark E-mail: bnielsen@cs.auc.dk;Open Systems Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, Department of Computer Science, 1304 W. Springfield Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA E-mail: agha@cs.uiuc.edu

  • Venue:
  • Annals of Software Engineering
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

Large and complex real‐time systems can benefit significantly from a component‐based development approach where new systems are constructed by composing reusable, documented and previously tested concurrent objects. However, reusing objects which execute under real‐time constraints is problematic because application specific time and synchronization constraints are often embedded in the internals of these objects. The tight coupling of functionality and real‐time constraints makes objects interdependent, and as a result difficult to reuse in another system. We propose a model which facilitates separate and modular specification of real‐time constraints, and show how separation of real‐time constraints and functional behavior is possible. We present our ideas using the Actor model to represent untimed objects, and the Real‐time Synchronizers language to express real‐time and synchronization constraints. We discuss specific mechanisms by which Real‐time Synchronizers can govern the interaction and execution of untimed objects. We treat our model formally, and succinctly define what effect real‐time constraints have on a set of concurrent objects. We briefly discuss how a middleware scheduling and event‐dispatching service can use the synchronizers to execute the system.