ACTRESS: Domain-Specific Modeling of Self-Adaptive Software Architectures

International audienceA common approach for engineering self-adaptive software systems is to use Feedback Control Loops (FCLs). Advances have led to more explicit and safer design of some control architectures, however, there is a need for more integrated and systematic approaches that support end-to-end integration of FCLs into software systems. In this paper, we propose a tooled approach that enables researchers and engineers to design and integrate adaptation mechanisms into software systems through FCLs. It consists of a domain-specific modeling language that raises the level of abstraction on which FCLs are defined, making them amenable to automated analysis and implementation code synthesis. The language supports composition, distribution and reflection, thereby enabling coordination and composition of multiple distributed FCLs. Its use is facilitated by a modeling environment, ACTRESS, that provides support for modeling, verification and complete code generation. We report on its application to a concrete adaptation case study and also discuss resulting properties