MoPED: A Model-Based Provisioning Engine for Dependability in Component-Based Distributed Real-Time Embedded Systems

Abstract

Developing dependable distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) systems incurs significant complexities in the radeoffs resulting from the different conflicting attributes of dependability, such as predictability, availability, and security. In component-based systems, these challenges are exacerbated since the tradeoffs must faithfully be reflected within the complex metadata descriptors used to compose, deploy and configure the system. The benefits of design-time approaches to address these problems are well-understood. Existing model-driven design time tools for developing dependable systems, however, focus largely on only one dependability attribute at a time and lack of extensibility results in rigid and hard to maintain tool support. This paper describes MoPED (Model-based Provisioning Engine for Dependability), which is a model-driven framework that unifies reasoning about predictability, availability, and security requirements for developing dependable component-based DRE systems. We evaluate the capabilities of MoPED using a representative case study and show how it alleviates complexities in the design of dependable systems and reduces manual efforts in the deployment phase by an order of magnitude.