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2014
Master Thesis
Title
Architecture-based simulation of quality attributes in the context of software ecosystems
Abstract
Software ecosystems are large, complex, interconnected software systems. As in all software systems the architecture is the key to satisfy functional and quality requirements. Simulation enables to analyze software systems already in the architecture phase. In this way you can predict quality attributes before investing in effort in actually building the concrete system. Nowadays many modeling tools exist on the market, which offer simulation functionality. However, the existing tools were developed for conventional software systems and not for software ecosystems. In this thesis Avolution ABACUS and Palladio Bench were examined as quality attributes simulation tools, with respect to performance, reliability and costs. The investigation was focused on modeling, simulation and analyzing of the quality attributes. In addition, the architecture optimization possibilities, the software ecosystem support and the interoperability with Enterprise Architect were discussed. As result Palladio was selected as the simulation tool for the further proceeding, due to the detailed modeling capabilities, the better support of external systems and the automatic architecture design space exploration. Enterprise Architect and Palladio Bench were united with the self-developed Palladio-EA-Bridge. The Palladio-EA-Bridge allows to model PCM models in Enterprise Architect and thereafter to import these models as Palladio projects. Subsequently the created Palladio models can be simulated and analyzed with the means of Palladio Bench. By this means, software architect has a tool chain, which enables to model and to simulate system's performance and reliability quality attributes within software ecosystems with minimal effort. The application of the Palladio-EA-Bridge is demonstrated in the context of Living Lab Smart Farming at Fraunhofer IESE by creation of a hypothetical example scenario. This has shown that the simulation approach is able to reduce design effort and analysis time compared with the conventional methods like prototyping.
Thesis Note
Mannheim, Hochschule, Master Thesis, 2014
Publishing Place
Mannheim