Using a model to generate reconfiguration plans at runtime

In this paper, we present a reconfiguration procedure that generates a software reconfiguration sequence at runtime, being architecturally-consistent in respect to the components, compositions and connections provided by the underlying component model. Besides this, the procedure also regards the state for reconfiguration. Our procedure is based on the concept of Automated Planning, an Artificial Intelligence area. Given two architectural configurations, the procedure generates, if existing, a sequence of reconfigurations actions that will drive the architectural evolution among the configurations. The procedure can also generate an initialization sequence when the current configuration is empty, and the goal configuration represents a functional application. We generated the procedure for the Fractal component model and applied it to a publish/subscribe communications software developed in Fractal, as a proof of concept.