Transport layer abstraction in event channels for embedded systems

ABSTRACT

As embedded systems increase in complexity and begin to participate in distributed systems, the need for middleware in building such systems becomes imperative. However, the use of middleware that fully implements such standards can impose a significant increase in footprint for an application, making it unsuitable for use in embedded systems. We consider the use of a standard CORBA event channel in a setting where distribution and inter-language support are unnecessary. We report our experience in applying aspects to abstract the transport layer (CORBA) of the event channel into a selectable feature. Thus, enabling or disabling CORBA for a specific application can be decided at build-time, by merely selecting CORBA as a feature. We describe the patterns used to achieve this abstraction and present footprint and throughput results showing the effect of CORBA on automatically derived subsets of the event channel.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.4 Distributed Systems

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Real-time and embedded systems

  D. Software
  D.1 PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES
      D.1.m Miscellaneous

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Experimentation, Performance

Keywords:
AOP, CORBA, embedded systems, event service, middleware, software composition, subsetting, transport abstraction