A System for Creating Specialized DDS ArchitecturesSolomon Berhe, Jeffery Peck, Thomas B. Puzak, Nathan Viniconis12/15/20051. IntroductionFor our semester project we have created a method for designing new applicationsbased on previous work done in the domain. Included is a description of the project, detailedaccounts of our analysis, and descriptions of a working application that we implemented. Webelieve that the work done for this project is extremely unique and innovative, and has thepotential to aid in the development of applications within a particular software domain.1.1. Goal of the ProjectThe focus of the project is to create a system that a designer of software architecturescould utilize in order to make the structural modeling process easier. Though many differentroutes could have been taken in order to help a designer with the architecture creatingprocess[1,2], our desire was to be able to give the designer concrete UML models to startwith.It quickly became apparent that software structures can be radically different from oneanother, especially when their implementations have little in common. Taking this intoconsideration, the project focus narrows to a generic software domain. A software domain isa particular class of applications that share a common theme. There are so many softwaredomains to chose from, the scope further narrows to the creation of a generic system thatcould be applied to any software domain.The goal of this research is to detail a procedure to generate a new application’sdesign architecture based on UML by analyzing breakdowns of similar applications. Theprocedure is broken into two phases. First, a subset of a software domain is broken intoentities, modeled in UML, combined to create a generic abstraction, tagged with attributes,and stored in a relational database. Second, a methodology is proposed that uses the storeddata to generate a new architecture. The secondary goal focuses on the Data DistributionSystem (DDS) domain. The DDS domain is first broken down according to the genericprocedure; next, a system is created that a designer can use to generate a new architecture.Ultimately some useful architectural guidelines in the form of UML models are outputted.1.2. ResponsibilitiesMany of the responsibilities in this project were universal. As a group, in our many meetings, we all took part in formulating procedures for the following:- Stripping the four applications that we analyzed, down to their generic models- Analyzing and extending the generic models to a particular application- Tagging and storing the attributes in an organized manner- Creating new applications using a sum-of-parts methodFrom these procedures, we were able to accomplish our individual responsibilities. They were as follows:NateBitTorrent AnalysisWebpage Maintenance (http://www.revrick.net/CSE333/ProjectTimeline.htm)TomFTP AnalysisGeneral form of model for application-level UMLSolomonLimeWire AnalysisImplementation (Frontend and Database)JeffDC++ AnalysisImplementation (Backend and UML)Nate was also involved in outlining and putting together parts of the presentation, and Tomput together this report.1.3. Project OverviewFrom the outset, it was our intention to develop a method to aid in the design andcreation phase of a chosen software system. To accomplish this we utilize UML classdiagrams of existing applications coupled with a predefined generic class description of thechosen domain. The generic class description is used to form the roots of an inheritancehierarchy linking all of the existing applications UML diagrams.The “unified view” diagram is coupled with attributes that qualitatively describe thefunctionality that is gained or lost through the inheritance described in the diagram. Theseattributes are utilized by a designer so that he can choose the desired functionality of a givencomponent of the application that he is modeling. The design that is generated is based oncomponents present in preexisting applications that correspond to the designer's chosenattributes.To perform our analysis we chose to study the domain of data distribution systems(DDS). A DDS is loosely defined as an application that is used to disseminate information.The particular method that a DDS uses to accomplish this task is immaterial. All datadistribution systems provide the same basic services and they are qualitatively analyzed fromthis perspective.As a group we defined generic class diagrams defining the functionality of two majorcomponents common to all DDSs. Each group member then completely diagrammed thesecomponents in a specific DDS and then incorporated the generic component descriptions intothese UML class diagrams. Additionally, application specific attributes describing the purposeof the inheritance from generic to specific classes were added to the UML.Finally, an application to aid in the development of a new DDS was implemented. Theapplication allows a user to select a DDS component he wants to model, and then to choosean attribute that describes how the generic components will be extended. The applicationproduces an XML description of an architecture that defines a new DDS. The purpose of thisapplication is to provide a proof of concept for our original goal.1.4. MotivationModeling software architecture prior to development is becoming a required process asapplications grow and become more complex[3]. New services allow applications to talk overthe internal and external networks with a increasing number of abstractions and layersbetween them. Starting the architectural design from scratch can result in numerousdifficulties. Chances are, some of these problems arose during the creation of similarapplications. It would be beneficial to extract and augment architectures derived from workingexample of software sharing a common goal.The DDS domain is a prime example of a software domain that would benefit from thisresearch. A theme of managing data exchange over the Internet is common throughout all ofthe applications within. The varieties of techniques these systems utilize grant a relativelycomplex setting in which to test the procedure. A designer wishing to create a new DDS woulduse this system to quickly
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