Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Developing Autonomic Systems with ASSL

Abstract

ASSL (Autonomic System Specification Language) is an initiative for self-management of complex systems whereby the problem of formal specification, validation, and code generation of autonomic systems is approached within a framework. Being a formal method dedicated to autonomic computing, ASSL helps developers with problem formation, system design, system analysis and evaluation, and system implementation. The framework provides a powerful formal notation and suitable mature tool support that allow ASSL specifications to be edited and validated and Java code to be generated from any valid specification. As part of the framework’s proof-of-concept strategy, ASSL has been used to make a variety of existing and prospective systems autonomic. This entry presents the ASSL formal specification model and tools. Moreover, two case studies are presented to reveal practical aspects of using ASSL for the development of prototypes of prospective space exploration systems incorporating autonomic features.