Architectural style requirements for self-healing systems

Abstract

This paper argues for a set of requirements that an architectural style for self-healing systems should satisfy: adaptability, dynamicity, awareness, autonomy, robustness, distributability, mobility, and traceability. Support for these requirements is discussed along five dimensions we have identified as distinguishing characteristics of architectural styles: external structure, topology rules, behavior, interaction, and data flow. As an illustration, these requirements are used to assess an existing architectural style. While this initial formulation of the requirements appears to have utility, much further work remains to be done in order to apply it in evaluating and comparing architectural styles for self-healing systems.