Weaving Aspects into Real-Time Operating System Design Using Object-Oriented Model Transformation

Abstract

Despite of the proliferation of object-oriented and component technology, their application to real-time operating systems (RTOS) has been limited since most design concerns in RTOSes crosscut software components and these are critical to deliver required performance and functionality. Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) is a very effective means to solve the crosscutting problem. However, we have observed the following limitations of the current AOP framework: (1) the current text-based AOP languages cannot clearly show how aspects are weaved together, (2) their granularity is too coarse to capture all aspects in an RTOS, (3) it is difficult to control the weaving process, since aspect weavers are usually hard-coded. In this paper, we propose a new AOP framework that provides (1) a graphical aspect programming environment that visualizes aspects, crosscutting classes, and method structures, (2) a new aspect model that supports a sub-method level granularity where an aspect is defined as a set of classes, and (3) an aspect weaving process specified by an object-oriented meta-model transformation. Since our aspect-oriented programming framework improves the expressiveness of the crosscutting concerns of RTOSes and automates aspect weaver generation, it can enhance RTOS customization.