High-quality customizable embedded software from COTS components

Abstract

Dramatic advances in computer and communication technologies have greatly promoted the growth of embedded telecommunication systems. More and more critical applications, such as banking and financial services, remote patient monitoring systems, transportation, etc., are being developed. The software for these applications is becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex and this trend will accelerate over the next few years with the development of "software-defined telephony". To support these critical applications, it is necessary to achieve high quality and rigorously demonstrate that high quality has in fact been achieved. In today's highly competitive environment; it is also essential to have accelerated development schedules and the capability to quickly customize and adapt products for niche markets and to satisfy diverse regional standards and procedures. To meet all these challenges, software development technology is rapidly shifting away from low-level programming issues to automated code generation and integration of systems from components, either Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components or specially developed in-house components. This is made possible by numerous recent breakthroughs in software technology, including web-based cooperative software development, in-process; monitoring, agents, Java, scripting languages, and, especially, industry-driven standardization efforts, such as CORBA, TINA, TL 9000, and XDAIS. The use of COTS components can significantly reduce software development time and cost.