Middleware Model for Adapting Dynamic Requirements

Making a distributed system adaptable to the dynamic variations in the user requirements is a big challenge in software industries. It is identified that the solution for the adaptability of such dynamic variations can be achieved through reflective middleware. In this paper an efficient solution is proposed by combining aspect oriented approach with reflective middleware. The significant feature of the proposed aspect oriented reflective middleware model is capturing the dynamic variations in the functionalities of the system as aspects. The three major components defined in this model to implement dynamic adaptability are Aspect Generator, Aspect Weaver and Remote Method Invoker. Aspect Generator component is used to define dynamic requirements as aspects. Aspect Weaver provides service to weave the dynamic requirements with the application components associated with that requirement. Remote Method Invoker is the meta layer component, which provides the platform for the Aspect Weaver to execute its service. The metric to measure the efficiency of the system adaptability has also been proposed here. The adaptability approach implemented through this model has been evaluated and proved as an efficient solution using this metric. This model has also been evaluated at an architectural level using formal analysis to prove that the dynamic requirements can be incorporated without affecting the existing functionalities of the system.