Component
and Dependable Systems Technologies
Component
Technology
- Objectives:
Components are independent units that can be composed to
larger units. This research is about flexible composition
mechanisms for component-based systems. Suitable matching
and adaptation technologies based on semantical
descriptions of components are investigated. Computing
models describing the entire component life cycle with
its composition and interaction patterns are addressed.
In particular the Web is considered as the central
infrastructure.
- Projects:
- A Formal Component Life
Cycle Model: The aim is the definition of a
process-oriented component model that formally
captures activities such as discovery, matching,
connection, interaction, and replacement.
- Components and
Design-by-Contract: Design-by-contract based
on pre- and postconditions is a widely used
technique for the specification and
implementation of methods. This technique shall
be incorporated into component technology.
- Semantic Web Components:
The development and deployment of components
using Web technologies shall be explored. We
consider semantical descriptions of components
that are accessible via the Web as essential.
- Case Study: Our case
study is a Web-based virtual course system.
Features of this system include multiple
educational services (lectures, tutorials, labs,
assessment), database supported content storage,
highly interactive learning.
- People:
- Claus Pahl: Project leader;
Foundations
- David Ward (2001):
Architecture and broker implementation
- Máire Casey (2001 - 2002):
Web services and Web components; case study
- Chen Li : Dependable
components
- Publications:
- C. Pahl. A Formal Composition
and Interaction Model for a Web Component
Platform. ICALP2002 Workshop on Formal
Methods and Component Interaction. Malaga,
Spain. Elsevier Electronic Notes in Theoretical
Computer Science. July 2002.
- M. Casey. Towards
a Web Component Framework: an Investigation into
the Suitability of Web Service Technologies for
Web-based Components. Dublin City
University. M.Sc. Dissertation. 2002.
- C. Pahl and D. Ward. Towards a
Component Composition and Interaction
Architecture for the Web. ETAPS2002
Workshop on Software Composition. Grenoble,
France. Elsevier Publishers. 2002.
- C. Pahl. Components,
Contracts, and Connectors for the Unified
Modelling Language. Proceedings FME01
Symposium Formal Methods Europe. Berlin,
Germany. Springer-Verlag. LNCS Series No. 2021.
pages 259-277. 2001.
- C. Pahl. A Pi-Calculus based
Framework for the Composition and Replacement of
Components. Proc. Conference on
Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages,
and Applications OOPSLA2001 Workshop
on Specification and Verification of
Component-Based Systems. Tampa Bay, Florida,
USA. ACM Press. 2001.
- C. Pahl. Formalising Dynamic
Composition and Evolution in Java. ECOOP
European Conference on Object-Oriented
Programming Workshop on Formal Techniques
for Java Programming FTfJP2001,
Budapest, Hungary. 2001. Published as Technical
Report, Fernuniversität Hagen. 2001.
- C. Pahl. Modal Logics for
Reasoning about Object-based Component
Composition. In Proc. 4rd Irish Workshop on
Formal Methods, July 2000, Maynooth, Ireland.
2000.
- C. Pahl. Modular Composition
of Language Features through Language Extensions.
In A. Butterfield and S. Flynn, editors, Proc.
3rd Irish Workshop on Formal Methods, July 1999,
Galway, Ireland, Electronic Workshops in
Computing. Springer-Verlag, 1999.
Secure and Dependable Systems
- Objectives:
Dependability - the combination of security and safety -
is more and more important for systems that are deployed
in open, distributed, an often untrusted environments.
Two aspects are at the centre of this research: access
control and security analysis.
- Projects:
- A Formal Model for Access
Control: A formal model of access control
primitives shall be developed. Starting point is
the use of algebraic techniques.
- Security Protocol Analysis
through Intruder Generation: Starting from
formal specifications of security requirements
for a security protocol a technique to generate
intruder behaviours that can be used to test the
specification and detect security flaws shall be
developed.
- People:
- Publications:
- C. Pahl. Interference Analysis
for Dependable Systems using Refinement and
Abstraction. Symposium Formal Methods Europe
FME2002. Copenhagen, Denmark.
Springer-Verlag. LNCS Series. July 2002.
- C. Pahl. Analysing Security
Properties using Refinement. ZB2002 Z
and B Users Conference Workshop on
Refinement of Critical Systems RCS02.
Grenoble, France. 2002.
- C. Pahl. Analysis and Test
Case Generation for Security Protocols using
Abstraction. Proc. Joint 7th
International Conference on Information Systems
Analysis and Synthesis ISAS'2001 and 5th
Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics and
Informatics SCI2001. Orlando, Florida,
USA. pages V.294-V.299. 2001.
- C. Pahl. An Algebraic Basis
for Specifying and Enforcing Access Control in
Security Systems. In Proc. 4rd Irish Workshop
on Formal Methods, July 2000, Maynooth, Ireland.
2000.