Wholeness, Uncertainty, and Self-measurement : Three Fundamental Principles in Concurrent-systems Engineering

A good design, development, and maintenance methodology for concurrent systems must be based on a deep recognition and understanding of the intrinsic characteristics of concurrent systems. Based on the author’s recognition and understanding of the wholeness principle of concurrent systems and the uncertainty principle in measuring and monitoring concurrent systems, a new design principle, named the “self-measurement principle,” for large-scale, long-lived, and highly reliable concurrent systems is proposed. The self-measurement principle requires that a large-scale, long-lived, and highly reliable concurrent system should be constructed by some function components and some (maybe only one) permanent self-measurement components that act concurrently with the function components, measure and monitor the system itself according to some requirements, and pass run-time information about the system’s behavior to the outside world of the system.