Requirements and Assessment of Languages and Frameworks for Adaptation Models

TL;DR

This paper investigates the specific requirements for modeling languages and frameworks used in self-adaptive software systems, emphasizing the analysis, decision-making, and planning activities within runtime feedback loops.

Contribution

It defines requirements for adaptation modeling languages and frameworks, discusses usage patterns, and evaluates existing approaches against these requirements.

Findings

Identified key requirements for adaptation modeling languages.

Proposed patterns for structuring feedback loop activities.

Assessed existing approaches for compliance with these requirements.

Abstract

Approaches to self-adaptive software systems use models at runtime to leverage benefits of model-driven engineering (MDE) for providing views on running systems and for engineering feedback loops. Most of these approaches focus on causally connecting runtime models and running systems, and just apply typical MDE techniques, like model transformation, or well-known techniques, like event-condition-action rules, from other fields than MDE to realize a feedback loop. However, elaborating requirements for feedback loop activities for the specific case of runtime models is rather neglected. Therefore, we investigate requirements for Adaptation Models that specify the analysis, decision-making, and planning of adaptation as part of a feedback loop. In particular, we consider requirements for a modeling language of adaptation models and for a framework as the execution environment of adaptation models. Moreover, we discuss patterns for using adaptation models within the feedback loop regarding the structuring of loop activities and the implications on the requirements for adaptation models. Finally, we assess two existing approaches to adaptation models concerning their fitness for the requirements discussed in this paper.