Surviving the Tornado

The Best Kept “Secrets” of R&D Success in the Internet Age

Dr. Douglas C. Schmidtschmidt@uci.edu

Electrical & Computing Engineering DepartmentThe Henry Samueli School of Engineering

University of California, Irvine

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00Addressing the COTS “Crisis”

However, this trend presents many vexing R&D challenges for mission-critical systems, e.g., • Inflexibility & lack of QoS• Confidence woes & global competition

Distributed systems increasingly must reuse commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware & software• i.e., COTS is essential to R&D success

Why we should care:

• Recent advances in COTS software technology can help to fundamentally reshape distributed system R&D

• Despite IT commodization, progress in COTS hardware & software is often not applicable for mission-critical distributed systems

Adaptive & reflective autonomous distributed embedded systems

High-performance, real-time, fault-tolerant, & secure systems

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Power-aware ad hoc, mobile, distributed, & embedded systems

Middleware, Frameworks, & Components

Patterns & Pattern Languages

Standards & Open-source

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00

There are multiple COTS layers & research/

business opportunities

Historically, mission-critical apps were built directly atop hardware

The domain-specific services layer is where system integrators can provide the most value & derive the most benefits

The domain-specific services layer is where system integrators can provide the most value & derive the most benefits

The Evolution of COTS

Standards-based COTS middleware helps:•Leverage hardware/software technology advances

•Evolve to new environments & requirements

& OS•This was extremely tedious, error-prone, & costly over system life-cycles

•QoS specification & enforcement

•Real-time features & optimizations

•Layered resource management

•Transparent power management

Early COTS middleware lacked:

Advanced R&D has address some, but by no means all, of these issues

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00

•More emphasis on integration rather than programming

•Increased technology convergence & standardization

•Mass market economies of scale for technology & personnel

•More disruptive technologies & global competition

•Lower priced--but often lower quality--hardware & software components

•The decline of internally funded R&D•Potential for complexity cap in next-generation complex systems

Consequences of COTS & IT Commoditization

Not all trends bode well for long-term competitiveness of traditional R&D leaders

Ultimately, competitiveness will depend upon longer-term R&D efforts on complex distributed & embedded systems

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00Example of R&D Impact: Real-time CORBA & The ACE ORB (TAO)

www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO.html

Thread Pools

SchedulingServiceStandard

Synchronizers

Portable Priorities

Protocol PropertiesExplicit Binding

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00Example of R&D Impact:

Applying COTS in Real-time Avionics

Key System Characteristics•Deterministic & statistical deadlines

•~20 Hz•Low latency & jitter

•~250 usecs•Periodic & aperiodic processing•Complex dependencies•Continuous platform upgrades

•Test flown at China Lake NAWS by Boeing OSAT II ‘98, funded by OS-JTF• www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO-boeing.html

•Also used on SOFIA project by Raytheon• sofia.arc.nasa.gov

•First use of RT CORBA in mission computing•Drove Real-time CORBA standardization

•Test flown at China Lake NAWS by Boeing OSAT II ‘98, funded by OS-JTF• www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/TAO-boeing.html

•Also used on SOFIA project by Raytheon• sofia.arc.nasa.gov

•First use of RT CORBA in mission computing•Drove Real-time CORBA standardization

Key Results

Goals•Apply COTS & open systems to mission-critical real-time avionics

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00Example of R&D Impact:

Applying COTS to Real-time Image Processing

Goals•Examine glass bottles for defects in real-time

System Characteristics•Process 20 bottles per sec• i.e., ~50 msec per bottle

•Networked configuration

•~10 cameras

Key Software Solution Characteristics

•Affordable, flexible, & COTS•Real-time CORBA communication•Compact PCI bus + Celeron processors

•Affordable, flexible, & COTS•Real-time CORBA communication•Compact PCI bus + Celeron processors

•Embedded Linux (Lem)•Remote booted by DHCP/TFTP

www.krones.com

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00

Conventional COTS LimitationsMany hardware & software APIs and protocols are now standardized, e.g.:

Inflexible COTS negatively affects researchers & developersInflexible COTS negatively affects researchers & developers

While COTS standards promote reuse, they limit design choices, e.g.:• Networking protocols• Concurrency & scheduling• Caching• Fault tolerance• Security

Historically, COTS tightly couples functional & QoS aspects• e.g., due to lack of “hooks”

• TCP/IP, ATM• POSIX & JVMs• CORBA ORBs & components

• Intel x86 & Power PC chipsets

• Ada, C, C++, RT Java

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00Promising New Solution: Adaptive & Reflective Middleware

Research Challenges•Preserve critical set of application QoS properties end-to-end• e.g., efficiency, predictability, scalability, dependability, & security

•Achieve load invariant performance & system stability

•Preserve critical set of application QoS properties end-to-end• e.g., efficiency, predictability, scalability, dependability, & security

•Achieve load invariant performance & system stability

•Maximize longevity in wireless & mobile environments• e.g., control power-aware hardware via power-aware middleware

•Automatically generate & integrate multiple QoS properties

•Maximize longevity in wireless & mobile environments• e.g., control power-aware hardware via power-aware middleware

•Automatically generate & integrate multiple QoS properties

Adaptive & reflective middleware is middleware whose functional or QoS-related properties can be modified either •Statically, e.g., to better allocate resources that can optimized a priori or

•Dynamically, e.g., in response to changes in environment conditions or requirements

MECHANISM/PROPERTYMANAGER

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DELEGATE DELEGATE

CONTRACT CONTRACT

LOCALRESOURCEMANAGERS

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00

Network

Key Themes of WSOA• Real-time mission replanning & collaboration

• e.g., C2 node & F-15 share data imagery & annotations

• Shows adaptive QoS behavior is feasible within demanding real-world constraints

• Showcase academic & industry synergy

Limitations• “Stove-pipe” architectures• Only “opportunistic” integration• Lack of multi-property QoS integration• Not fully autonomous

Limitations• “Stove-pipe” architectures• Only “opportunistic” integration• Lack of multi-property QoS integration• Not fully autonomous

State-of-the-Art in QoS Demos

DARPA, AFRL, & Boeing test flight in ‘01

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00

Key Themes•Handle variation translucently

• QoS aspect languages• Smart proxies & interceptors• Pluggable protocols & adapters• Middleware gateways/bridges

•Ideally, implementations should be generated from higher-level specifications

Promising New Solution: Frameworks for Integrating QoS Properties

Research Challenges•Model, compose, analyze, & optimize QoS framework component properties

•Leverage configurable & adaptive hardware capabilities

• e.g., power management, high-speed QoS-enabled bus & network interconnects

Research Challenges•Model, compose, analyze, & optimize QoS framework component properties

•Leverage configurable & adaptive hardware capabilities

• e.g., power management, high-speed QoS-enabled bus & network interconnects

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00Promising New R&D Strategy: Pattern Languages for QoS

Research Challenges•Identifying QoS pattern languages

• Broaden the focus of conventional pattern-related tools and pattern languages, which focus on simple structural & functional behavior

•Model QoS-enabled middleware via pattern languages• Must understand how to build high-confidence

systems before we can automate V&V

•Identifying QoS pattern languages• Broaden the focus of conventional pattern-related

tools and pattern languages, which focus on simple structural & functional behavior

•Model QoS-enabled middleware via pattern languages• Must understand how to build high-confidence

systems before we can automate V&V

• Formal semantics• Articulate QoS properties of core architectures

• Automation• i.e., auto-generate portions of frameworks & components from pattern languages

• Formal semantics• Articulate QoS properties of core architectures

• Automation• i.e., auto-generate portions of frameworks & components from pattern languages

Key ThemePatterns & pattern languages codify expert knowledge to help generate software architectures by capturing recurring structures & dynamics and resolving common design forces

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00

Why middleware-centric reuse works1.Hardware advances

•e.g., faster CPUs & networks2.Software/system architecture

advances•e.g., inter-layer optimizations & meta-programming mechanisms

3.Economic necessity•e.g., global competition for customers & engineers

Why Can We Make a Difference Now?

Recent synergistic advances in fundamentals:

Revolutionary changes in software process: Open-source, refactoring, extreme programming (XP), advanced V&V techniques

Patterns and Pattern Languages: Generate software architectures by capturing recurring structures & dynamics & by resolving design forces

Standards-based QoS-enabled Middleware: Pluggable service & micro-protocol components & reusable “semi-complete” application frameworks

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Douglas C. Schmidt Keck Visit 10/9/00

Concluding Remarks“Secrets” to R&D success:•Embrace COTS standards

•But lead, rather than follow, ignore, or resist

•Leverage open-source• i.e., build upon and expand the community

•Be entrepreneurial•e.g., use the Web to “market” R&D, help spawn commercial spin-offs

•Get “real”• i.e., be relevant, solve the hard problems, partner with industry strategically

•Leave an enduring legacy• i.e., be willing to see good R&D ideas all the way through

R&D AppReqs

StandardCOTS

R&D

R&D Synergies