Adaptive middleware design for CPS: Considerations on the OS, resource managers, and the network run-time

Abstract

Timely operation is a key factor in CPS that is challenged by their inherent distributed nature. The variability introduced by the network and its unpredictable effects have to be handled. Thus, a vertical understanding of the involved software layers is needed at the levels of the operating system, the networking software and the middleware. Typically, middleware has been described in a quite independent way from the underlying operating system kernel and the network software. That is not appropriate in a CPS as some degree of control over the resource assignment is expected as a means to ensure timeliness. In this paper, we look into the details of middleware in relation to its sorrounding software layers to provide a middleware design, namely OMA-Cy, suiting the needs of CPS. We target subsystems where timing deadlines are not hard nor safety critical, but require quality of service guarantees such that resource management techniques are applied both at the individual nodes as well as in the distributed communication.