Automating software architecture exploration with M2Aspects

Abstract

An important step in the development of large-scale distributed reactive systems is the design of effective system architectures. The early availability of prototypes facilitates the selection of the most effective architecture for a given situation. Although it is very beneficial to evaluate and compare architectures for functionality and quality attributes before implementing or changing the entire system, this step is often skipped due to the required time and effort. In this paper we present on the status of our tool chain to automate our approach of efficient prototype creation for scenario-based software specifications using aspect-oriented programming techniques (10). It transforms interaction-based software specifications (scenarios) into AspectJ programs. Central part of this tool chain is M2Aspects, which implements the methodological transition from scenarios to aspect implementations. It also handles architectural configurations; M2Aspects maps of the same set of scenarios to different candidate architectures. This significantly reduces the effort required to explore architectural alternatives. We explain our tool-chain using the Center TRACON Automation System as a running example.