CAREER: Behavior-Based Coordination for Open Distributed Real-Time and Embedded Computing

Illinois Institute Of Technology, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

The proliferation of embedded devices and significant advances of wireless network technologies have led to the emergence of Open Distributed Real-time and Embedded (ODRE) systems and applications which further the expansion of our society's digital backbone. These applications involve an increasingly large number of small dynamic concurrent objects that must together satisfy multiple types of QoS requirements. As such, the need for a new paradigm to reduce the complexity and ease the development of these systems is growing. Viewing ODRE systems as compositions of coordination and concurrent computation decouples the two concerns and allows higher levels of abstractions. However, these advantages can only be fully realized if the following fundamental requirements are met. First, it is essential to have a coordination model that focuses on coordination under QoS constraints, and is decentralized, exogenous, scalable and stable. Second, in order to reason about QoS constraints, a formal model that uniformly represents these different types of constraints must be provided. Third, tools that support coordination abstractions must be available to facilitate the development of ODRE applications. This project is devoted to meeting these requirements. Collaborating with industry and laboratories and progressively evaluating research results in real-world application settings are two additional key facets of this project. This ensures that the results are relevant and usable in improving the robustness of critical software. In addition, the collaboration and role models from industry enrich the students? learning environment and provide them the support needed for successful careers in real-time embedded computing.