A Service Description Framework for

Due to hardware developments, strong application needs and the overwhelming influence of the net in almost all areas, distributed and mobile systems, especially software systems, have become one of the most important topics for nowadays software industry. Unfortunately, distri-bution adds its share to the problems of developing complex software systems. Heterogeneity in both, hardware and software, concurrency, distribution of components and the need for inter-operability between different systems complicate matters. Moreover, new technical aspects like resource management, load balancing and deadlock handling put an additional burden onto the developer. Although subject to permanent changes, distributed systems have high requirements w.r.t. dependability, robustness and performance. The long-term common goal of our research efforts is the development, implementation and evaluation of methods helpful for the development of robust and easy-to-use software for com-plex systems in general while putting a focus on the problems and issues regarding the software development for distributed as well as mobile systems on all levels. Our current research acti-vities are focussed on different aspects centered around that theme: • Robust and adaptive Service-oriented Architectures: Development of design methods, lan