Layered Connectors: Revisiting the Formal Basis of Architectural Connection for Complex Distributed Systems

Abstract. The complex distributed systems of nowadays require the dynamic composition of multiple components, which are autonomous and so complex that they can be considered as systems in themselves. These components often use different application protocols and are implemented on top of heterogeneous middleware, which hamper their successful inter-action. The explicit and rigorous description and analysis of components interaction is essential in order to enable the dynamic composition of these components. In this paper, we propose a formal approach to rep-resent and reason about interactions between components using layered connectors. Layered connectors describe components interaction at both the application and middleware layers and make explicit the role of mid-dleware in the realisation of this interaction. We provide formal semantics of layered connectors and present an approach for the synthesis of layered connectors in order to enable the dynamic composition of highly hetero-geneous components. We validate our approach through a case study in the area of collaborative emergency management