Detection of interference among aspects in aspect oriented modeling.

摘要

Aspects collaborate and interact with each other and with the base system to deliver a service. Intended interaction is designed into the system. Unintended interaction among the aspects or between the aspects and the base model is referred to as Aspect Interference. Aspect interference is triggered when the woven aspect demonstrates a behavior that is different from its autonomous behavior.;The interference among the aspects is most evident in the discrepant results of weaving aspects together. An aspect might enable or disable another aspect, or else share joinpoints with another aspect. These forms of interference result in different weaving results that are based on the weaving order. The weaving order lists the order in which aspects are woven to the base model. For instance, if multiple aspects match the same joinpoint, then the new behaviors added by the different aspects at the same joinpoint may cause a system failure. These types of interference can be detected based on the system's syntactics.;It is also possible to detect interference based on the system's semantics. The semantic-based detection ensures that the aspects' and the system's behavior are not violated due to the aspectual weaving. This form of interference detection is based on the system's and the aspects' specifications. An aspect is considered an interfering aspect if it violates any of the base system's specifications and/or the specifications of another aspect.;We believe that blindly weaving aspects together and to the base system may result in erratic software behavior and will hinder the adoption of Aspect Oriented Software Development (AOSD) by the industry. The problem of interference among aspects has recently been reported in the industry where AOSD is used. The interference problem has also been addressed by other industries, such as the Telecomm in the 1980's. Consequently, we have designed a solution to detect the aspect interference that is based on the system's both syntactics and semantics. The solution is based on graph transformation systems, model checking, and design by contract.