A Categorical Approach for Modeling and Verifying Dynamic Software Architecture

The dynamism in Software Architecture, also known as dynamic software architecture, is defined as the description of a system's structural evolution as execution progresses. It brings the challenge to the system's specification to incorporate the dynamic evolution patterns, as well as the verification of the system's properties. Community is an Architecture Description Language built on coordination principles and a categorical framework to support the composition of specifications of components to form the system's specification. However, an important problem of Community is the lack of support for specifying the system's architectural changes in both the set of components and the connections between them. This paper presents an extension of Community to support the specification of the dynamism in component-based systems. The categorical approach and architectural design principles supported by the language are illustrated through the design of a fault-tolerant, dynamic client-server system, from which some of the system's properties can be verified.