Connectorization: From Object-Oriented Design Patterns to Coordination Connectors

Abstract

We live in the technological advanced era in which new bigger systems are required to be constructed from existing reusable components in a shorter time. For this purpose, rapid development techniques are highly desired which can reduce the development cost and increase the quality of a system by reuse. For Cyber-Physical system construction in system engineering, reuse is emphasised upon significantly. Comparatively, coordination based reusable programs in component-based development approaches has a potential to fulfill the aforementioned desired features. In this paper, we study object-oriented behavioral design patterns to identify new coordination based connectors for EX-MAN component model (EX-MAN). Furthermore, using one of identified design patterns as sample, we propose a framework to define a coordination based exogenous connector for the chain of responsibility (CoR) design pattern. For the application of our defined connector, we design a small rudimentary example in EX-MAN. The operational semantics of our defined connector are verified in a modeling and simulation environment by Coloured Petri Net. We further show the practical use of CoR in the design of a bigger system in EX-MAN.