Combining Transactional and Behavioural Reliability in Adaptive Middleware.

Adaptive systems behaviours can be intuitively programmed, using rule based middleware, as a set of rules. The rules verify conditions and perform actions in order to achieve a set of objectives. However, this raises several problems. First, inconsistencies may result from the fact that an action is not actually performed due to a communication error or a hardware failure. Second, the rules may be conflicting and their sequential chaining may lead to undesirable behaviour. This paper proposes an approach that combines transactional and behavioural reliability (i.e. consistency and no conflict) in adaptive middleware. This approach is implemented using the middleware LINC and the automata based language Heptagon/BZR. A case study, in the field of building automation, is presented to illustrate the approach.