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Proceedings of the HPI Research School on Service-oriented Systems Engineering 2020 Fall Retreat
(2021)
Design and Implementation of service-oriented architectures imposes a huge number of research questions from the fields of software engineering, system analysis and modeling, adaptability, and application integration. Component orientation and web services are two approaches for design and realization of complex web-based system. Both approaches allow for dynamic application adaptation as well as integration of enterprise application.
Service-Oriented Systems Engineering represents a symbiosis of best practices in object-orientation, component-based development, distributed computing, and business process management. It provides integration of business and IT concerns.
The annual Ph.D. Retreat of the Research School provides each member the opportunity to present his/her current state of their research and to give an outline of a prospective Ph.D. thesis. Due to the interdisciplinary structure of the research school, this technical report covers a wide range of topics. These include but are not limited to: Human Computer Interaction and Computer Vision as Service; Service-oriented Geovisualization Systems; Algorithm Engineering for Service-oriented Systems; Modeling and Verification of Self-adaptive Service-oriented Systems; Tools and Methods for Software Engineering in Service-oriented Systems; Security Engineering of Service-based IT Systems; Service-oriented Information Systems; Evolutionary Transition of Enterprise Applications to Service Orientation; Operating System Abstractions for Service-oriented Computing; and Services Specification, Composition, and Enactment.
Like conventional software projects, projects in model-driven software engineering require adequate management of multiple versions of development artifacts, importantly allowing living with temporary inconsistencies. In the case of model-driven software engineering, employed versioning approaches also have to handle situations where different artifacts, that is, different models, are linked via automatic model transformations.
In this report, we propose a technique for jointly handling the transformation of multiple versions of a source model into corresponding versions of a target model, which enables the use of a more compact representation that may afford improved execution time of both the transformation and further analysis operations. Our approach is based on the well-known formalism of triple graph grammars and a previously introduced encoding of model version histories called multi-version models. In addition to showing the correctness of our approach with respect to the standard semantics of triple graph grammars, we conduct an empirical evaluation that demonstrates the potential benefit regarding execution time performance.
Modular and incremental global model management with extended generalized discrimination networks
(2023)
Complex projects developed under the model-driven engineering paradigm nowadays often involve several interrelated models, which are automatically processed via a multitude of model operations. Modular and incremental construction and execution of such networks of models and model operations are required to accommodate efficient development with potentially large-scale models. The underlying problem is also called Global Model Management.
In this report, we propose an approach to modular and incremental Global Model Management via an extension to the existing technique of Generalized Discrimination Networks (GDNs). In addition to further generalizing the notion of query operations employed in GDNs, we adapt the previously query-only mechanism to operations with side effects to integrate model transformation and model synchronization. We provide incremental algorithms for the execution of the resulting extended Generalized Discrimination Networks (eGDNs), as well as a prototypical implementation for a number of example eGDN operations.
Based on this prototypical implementation, we experiment with an application scenario from the software development domain to empirically evaluate our approach with respect to scalability and conceptually demonstrate its applicability in a typical scenario. Initial results confirm that the presented approach can indeed be employed to realize efficient Global Model Management in the considered scenario.
Improving scalability and reward of utility-driven self-healing for large dynamic architectures
(2020)
Self-adaptation can be realized in various ways. Rule-based approaches prescribe the adaptation to be executed if the system or environment satisfies certain conditions. They result in scalable solutions but often with merely satisfying adaptation decisions. In contrast, utility-driven approaches determine optimal decisions by using an often costly optimization, which typically does not scale for large problems. We propose a rule-based and utility-driven adaptation scheme that achieves the benefits of both directions such that the adaptation decisions are optimal, whereas the computation scales by avoiding an expensive optimization. We use this adaptation scheme for architecture-based self-healing of large software systems. For this purpose, we define the utility for large dynamic architectures of such systems based on patterns that define issues the self-healing must address. Moreover, we use pattern-based adaptation rules to resolve these issues. Using a pattern-based scheme to define the utility and adaptation rules allows us to compute the impact of each rule application on the overall utility and to realize an incremental and efficient utility-driven self-healing. In addition to formally analyzing the computational effort and optimality of the proposed scheme, we thoroughly demonstrate its scalability and optimality in terms of reward in comparative experiments with a static rule-based approach as a baseline and a utility-driven approach using a constraint solver. These experiments are based on different failure profiles derived from real-world failure logs. We also investigate the impact of different failure profile characteristics on the scalability and reward to evaluate the robustness of the different approaches.
Cyber-physical systems often encompass complex concurrent behavior with timing constraints and probabilistic failures on demand. The analysis whether such systems with probabilistic timed behavior adhere to a given specification is essential. When the states of the system can be represented by graphs, the rule-based formalism of Probabilistic Timed Graph Transformation Systems (PTGTSs) can be used to suitably capture structure dynamics as well as probabilistic and timed behavior of the system. The model checking support for PTGTSs w.r.t. properties specified using Probabilistic Timed Computation Tree Logic (PTCTL) has been already presented. Moreover, for timed graph-based runtime monitoring, Metric Temporal Graph Logic (MTGL) has been developed for stating metric temporal properties on identified subgraphs and their structural changes over time. In this paper, we (a) extend MTGL to the Probabilistic Metric Temporal Graph Logic (PMTGL) by allowing for the specification of probabilistic properties, (b) adapt our MTGL satisfaction checking approach to PTGTSs, and (c) combine the approaches for PTCTL model checking and MTGL satisfaction checking to obtain a Bounded Model Checking (BMC) approach for PMTGL. In our evaluation, we apply an implementation of our BMC approach in AutoGraph to a running example.
In recent years, the increased interest in application areas such as social networks has resulted in a rising popularity of graph-based approaches for storing and processing large amounts of interconnected data. To extract useful information from the growing network structures, efficient querying techniques are required.
In this paper, we propose an approach for graph pattern matching that allows a uniform handling of arbitrary constraints over the query vertices. Our technique builds on a previously introduced matching algorithm, which takes concrete host graph information into account to dynamically adapt the employed search plan during query execution. The dynamic algorithm is combined with an existing static approach for search plan generation, resulting in a hybrid technique which we further extend by a more sophisticated handling of filtering effects caused by constraint checks. We evaluate the presented concepts empirically based on an implementation for our graph pattern matching tool, the Story Diagram Interpreter, with queries and data provided by the LDBC Social Network Benchmark. Our results suggest that the hybrid technique may improve search efficiency in several cases, and rarely reduces efficiency.
Modeling and Formal Analysis of Meta-Ecosystems with Dynamic Structure using Graph Transformation
(2022)
The dynamics of ecosystems is of crucial importance. Various model-based approaches exist to understand and analyze their internal effects. In this paper, we model the space structure dynamics and ecological dynamics of meta-ecosystems using the formal technique of Graph Transformation (short GT). We build GT models to describe how a meta-ecosystem (modeled as a graph) can evolve over time (modeled by GT rules) and to analyze these GT models with respect to qualitative properties such as the existence of structural stabilities. As a case study, we build three GT models describing the space structure dynamics and ecological dynamics of three different savanna meta-ecosystems. The first GT model considers a savanna meta-ecosystem that is limited in space to two ecosystem patches, whereas the other two GT models consider two savanna meta-ecosystems that are unlimited in the number of ecosystem patches and only differ in one GT rule describing how the space structure of the meta-ecosystem grows. In the first two GT models, the space structure dynamics and ecological dynamics of the meta-ecosystem shows two main structural stabilities: the first one based on grassland-savanna-woodland transitions and the second one based on grassland-desert transitions. The transition between these two structural stabilities is driven by high-intensity fires affecting the tree components. In the third GT model, the GT rule for savanna regeneration induces desertification and therefore a collapse of the meta-ecosystem. We believe that GT models provide a complementary avenue to that of existing approaches to rigorously study ecological phenomena.
Cyber-physical systems often encompass complex concurrent behavior with timing constraints and probabilistic failures on demand. The analysis whether such systems with probabilistic timed behavior adhere to a given specification is essential. When the states of the system can be represented by graphs, the rule-based formalism of Probabilistic Timed Graph Transformation Systems (PTGTSs) can be used to suitably capture structure dynamics as well as probabilistic and timed behavior of the system. The model checking support for PTGTSs w.r.t. properties specified using Probabilistic Timed Computation Tree Logic (PTCTL) has been already presented. Moreover, for timed graph-based runtime monitoring, Metric Temporal Graph Logic (MTGL) has been developed for stating metric temporal properties on identified subgraphs and their structural changes over time.
In this paper, we (a) extend MTGL to the Probabilistic Metric Temporal Graph Logic (PMTGL) by allowing for the specification of probabilistic properties, (b) adapt our MTGL satisfaction checking approach to PTGTSs, and (c) combine the approaches for PTCTL model checking and MTGL satisfaction checking to obtain a Bounded Model Checking (BMC) approach for PMTGL. In our evaluation, we apply an implementation of our BMC approach in AutoGraph to a running example.
The analysis of behavioral models such as Graph Transformation Systems (GTSs) is of central importance in model-driven engineering. However, GTSs often result in intractably large or even infinite state spaces and may be equipped with multiple or even infinitely many start graphs. To mitigate these problems, static analysis techniques based on finite symbolic representations of sets of states or paths thereof have been devised. We focus on the technique of k-induction for establishing invariants specified using graph conditions. To this end, k-induction generates symbolic paths backwards from a symbolic state representing a violation of a candidate invariant to gather information on how that violation could have been reached possibly obtaining contradictions to assumed invariants. However, GTSs where multiple agents regularly perform actions independently from each other cannot be analyzed using this technique as of now as the independence among backward steps may prevent the gathering of relevant knowledge altogether.
In this paper, we extend k-induction to GTSs with multiple agents thereby supporting a wide range of additional GTSs. As a running example, we consider an unbounded number of shuttles driving on a large-scale track topology, which adjust their velocity to speed limits to avoid derailing. As central contribution, we develop pruning techniques based on causality and independence among backward steps and verify that k-induction remains sound under this adaptation as well as terminates in cases where it did not terminate before.
Evaluating the performance of self-adaptive systems is challenging due to their interactions with often highly dynamic environments. In the specific case of self-healing systems, the performance evaluations of self-healing approaches and their parameter tuning rely on the considered characteristics of failure occurrences and the resulting interactions with the self-healing actions. In this paper, we first study the state-of-the-art for evaluating the performances of self-healing systems by means of a systematic literature review. We provide a classification of different input types for such systems and analyse the limitations of each input type. A main finding is that the employed inputs are often not sophisticated regarding the considered characteristics for failure occurrences. To further study the impact of the identified limitations, we present experiments demonstrating that wrong assumptions regarding the characteristics of the failure occurrences can result in large performance prediction errors, disadvantageous design-time decisions concerning the selection of alternative self-healing approaches, and disadvantageous deployment-time decisions concerning parameter tuning. Furthermore, the experiments indicate that employing multiple alternative input characteristics can help with reducing the risk of premature disadvantageous design-time decisions.
In this extended abstract, we will analyze the current challenges for the envisioned Self-Adaptive CPS. In addition, we will outline our results to approach these challenges with SMARTSOS [10] a generic approach based on extensions of graph transformation systems employing open and adaptive collaborations and models at runtime for trustworthy self-adaptation, self-organization, and evolution of the individual systems and the system-of-systems level taking the independent development, operation, management, and evolution of these systems into account.
Embedded real-time systems generate state sequences where time elapses between state changes. Ensuring that such systems adhere to a provided specification of admissible or desired behavior is essential. Formal model-based testing is often a suitable cost-effective approach. We introduce an extended version of the formalism of symbolic graphs, which encompasses types as well as attributes, for representing states of dynamic systems. Relying on this extension of symbolic graphs, we present a novel formalism of timed graph transformation systems (TGTSs) that supports the model-based development of dynamic real-time systems at an abstract level where possible state changes and delays are specified by graph transformation rules. We then introduce an extended form of the metric temporal graph logic (MTGL) with increased expressiveness to improve the applicability of MTGL for the specification of timed graph sequences generated by a TGTS. Based on the metric temporal operators of MTGL and its built-in graph binding mechanics, we express properties on the structure and attributes of graphs as well as on the occurrence of graphs over time that are related by their inner structure. We provide formal support for checking whether a single generated timed graph sequence adheres to a provided MTGL specification. Relying on this logical foundation, we develop a testing framework for TGTSs that are specified using MTGL. Lastly, we apply this testing framework to a running example by using our prototypical implementation in the tool AutoGraph.
The analysis of behavioral models is of high importance for cyber-physical systems, as the systems often encompass complex behavior based on e.g. concurrent components with mutual exclusion or probabilistic failures on demand. The rule-based formalism of probabilistic timed graph transformation systems is a suitable choice when the models representing states of the system can be understood as graphs and timed and probabilistic behavior is important. However, model checking PTGTSs is limited to systems with rather small state spaces.
We present an approach for the analysis of large scale systems modeled as probabilistic timed graph transformation systems by systematically decomposing their state spaces into manageable fragments. To obtain qualitative and quantitative analysis results for a large scale system, we verify that results obtained for its fragments serve as overapproximations for the corresponding results of the large scale system. Hence, our approach allows for the detection of violations of qualitative and quantitative safety properties for the large scale system under analysis. We consider a running example in which we model shuttles driving on tracks of a large scale topology and for which we verify that shuttles never collide and are unlikely to execute emergency brakes. In our evaluation, we apply an implementation of our approach to the running example.
The formal modeling and analysis is of crucial importance for software development processes following the model based approach. We present the formalism of Interval Probabilistic Timed Graph Transformation Systems (IPTGTSs) as a high-level modeling language. This language supports structure dynamics (based on graph transformation), timed behavior (based on clocks, guards, resets, and invariants as in Timed Automata (TA)), and interval probabilistic behavior (based on Discrete Interval Probability Distributions). That is, for the probabilistic behavior, the modeler using IPTGTSs does not need to provide precise probabilities, which are often impossible to obtain, but rather provides a probability range instead from which a precise probability is chosen nondeterministically. In fact, this feature on capturing probabilistic behavior distinguishes IPTGTSs from Probabilistic Timed Graph Transformation Systems (PTGTSs) presented earlier.
Following earlier work on Interval Probabilistic Timed Automata (IPTA) and PTGTSs, we also provide an analysis tool chain for IPTGTSs based on inter-formalism transformations. In particular, we provide in our tool AutoGraph a translation of IPTGTSs to IPTA and rely on a mapping of IPTA to Probabilistic Timed Automata (PTA) to allow for the usage of the Prism model checker. The tool Prism can then be used to analyze the resulting PTA w.r.t. probabilistic real-time queries asking for worst-case and best-case probabilities to reach a certain set of target states in a given amount of time.
Today, software has become an intrinsic part of complex distributed embedded real-time systems. The next generation of embedded real-time systems will interconnect the today unconnected systems via complex software parts and the service-oriented paradigm. Due to these interconnections, the architecture of systems can be subject to changes at run-time, e.g. when dynamic binding of service end-points is employed or complex collaborations are established dynamically. However, suitable formalisms and techniques that allow for modeling and analysis of timed and probabilistic behavior of such systems as well as of their structure dynamics do not exist so far. To fill the identified gap, we propose Probabilistic Timed Graph Transformation Systems (PTGTSs) as a high-level description language that supports all the necessary aspects of structure dynamics, timed behavior, and probabilistic behavior. We introduce the formal model of PTGTSs in this paper as well as present and formally verify a mapping of models with finite state spaces to probabilistic timed automata (PTA) that allows to use the PRISM model checker to analyze PTGTS models with respect to PTCTL properties. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Monitoring is a key functionality for automated decision making as it is performed by self-adaptive systems, too. Effective monitoring provides the relevant information on time. This can be achieved with exhaustive monitoring causing a high overhead consumption of economical and ecological resources. In contrast, our generic adaptive monitoring approach supports effectiveness with increased efficiency. Also, it adapts to changes regarding the information demand and the monitored system without additional configuration and software implementation effort. The approach observes the executions of runtime model queries and processes change events to determine the currently required monitoring configuration. In this paper we explicate different possibilities to use the approach and evaluate their characteristics regarding the phenomenon detection time and the monitoring effort. Our approach allows balancing between those two characteristics. This makes it an interesting option for the monitoring function of self-adaptive systems because for them usually very short-lived phenomena are not relevant.
Evaluating the performance of self-adaptive systems (SAS) is challenging due to their complexity and interaction with the often highly dynamic environment. In the context of self-healing systems (SHS), employing simulators has been shown to be the most dominant means for performance evaluation. Simulating a SHS also requires realistic fault injection scenarios. We study the state of the practice for evaluating the performance of SHS by means of a systematic literature review. We present the current practice and point out that a more thorough and careful treatment in evaluating the performance of SHS is required.
The correctness of model transformations is a crucial element for model-driven engineering of high-quality software. In particular, behavior preservation is an important correctness property avoiding the introduction of semantic errors during the model-driven engineering process. Behavior preservation verification techniques show some kind of behavioral equivalence or refinement between source and target model of the transformation. Automatic tool support is available for verifying behavior preservation at the instance level, i.e., for a given source and target model specified by the model transformation. However, until now there is no sound and automatic verification approach available at the transformation level, i.e., for all source and target models. In this article, we extend our results presented in earlier work (Giese and Lambers, in: Ehrig et al (eds) Graph transformations, Springer, Berlin, 2012) and outline a new transformation-level approach for the sound and automatic verification of behavior preservation captured by bisimulation resp.simulation for outplace model transformations specified by triple graph grammars and semantic definitions given by graph transformation rules. In particular, we first show how behavior preservation can be modeled in a symbolic manner at the transformation level and then describe that transformation-level verification of behavior preservation can be reduced to invariant checking of suitable conditions for graph transformations. We demonstrate that the resulting checking problem can be addressed by our own invariant checker for an example of a transformation between sequence charts and communicating automata.
Incremental View Maintenance for Deductive Graph Databases Using Generalized Discrimination Networks
(2016)
Nowadays, graph databases are employed when relationships between entities are in the scope of database queries to avoid performance-critical join operations of relational databases. Graph queries are used to query and modify graphs stored in graph databases. Graph queries employ graph pattern matching that is NP-complete for subgraph isomorphism. Graph database views can be employed that keep ready answers in terms of precalculated graph pattern matches for often stated and complex graph queries to increase query performance. However, such graph database views must be kept consistent with the graphs stored in the graph database. In this paper, we describe how to use incremental graph pattern matching as technique for maintaining graph database views. We present an incremental maintenance algorithm for graph database views, which works for imperatively and declaratively specified graph queries. The evaluation shows that our maintenance algorithm scales when the number of nodes and edges stored in the graph database increases. Furthermore, our evaluation shows that our approach can outperform existing approaches for the incremental maintenance of graph query results.