Section: New Results

Distributed models at runtime

In the last two years we have developed a new models@runtime approach, named Kevoree. It supports extensive architecture evolution at runtime and enables the design of eternal systems with a continuous design process. The Kevoree type model supports dynamic types redefinition, allowing for complete redesign of specifications and implementations while the system is running. Communication channels between components are themselves first class dynamic entities. By combining our component metamodel and a models@runtime approach we have developed implementations of Kevoree for a wide range of computation nodes, ranging from inexpensive embedded microcontrollers to large commercial cloud implementations. We have shown that applications based on the Kevoree component model are able to reconfigure their architecture completely on the fly several times per second [40] on computation nodes with very limited resources.

Using the Kevoree platform, we demonstrated the use of models@runtime for large-scale distributed systems. We have shown that the models@runtime approach is applicable to pervasive distributed systems, even with volatile networks and continuously changing topologies [41] . Using ad hoc distributed algorithms, architectural models are propagated reliably in spite of frequent loss of connectivity, and reconfigurations of a distributed application are managed in a continuous consistent manner. Using colored Petri nets to describe quantititative properties we are building a toolchain to estimate the time related properties of assemblies at runtime [51] .