A State-based Join Point Model for AOP

The implementation of crosscutting concerns in a safety-critical system needs constant system state monitoring and responding to particular (desirable or undesirable) system states. Such states and their transition cannot easily be captured by low-level fixed code-based behavioural join points exposed by current AOP join point models. In order to find ways to implement crosscutting concerns in such a system using current available join point models, a programmer is forced to write code that does not clearly represent the programmer’s intention or map to the system designs it is supposed to implement, e.g., statetransition models pertaining to fault tolerance. In this paper we present the fundamental basis for a high level join point model which is based on state transitions. By defining system states pertaining to a crosscutting concern as aspects and using the transitions of these states as join points, the proposed State-based Join Point Model offers a high-level means of defining and capturing crosscutting concerns of a safety-critical system.