Abstract—By focussing on Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), this paper investigates how component-based principles and practices are used and support the activity of architecting CPS. For doing so, by running a systematic process, we selected 49 primary studies from the most important publishers search engines. Those papers have been analyzed and their contents classified according to the Classification Framework for Component Models proposed in our previous work. The results show that the main concerns handled by CPS component models are those of integration, performance, and maintainability. The instruments to satisfy those concerns, while architecting CPS, are ad-hoc software/system architecture, model-based approaches, architectural and component languages, and design. The IEC 61499 standard with its functions block is remarkably used to drive the work on six papers. Java is the most frequently used programming language used for implementing the components. Components are deployed mostly at compile time. Interfaces are almost equally distributed into port-based and operation-based. Overall, the results show a transition of technologies and approaches used in Embedded Systems to CPS, but still lacking methods for integrated architecting, in particular in incremental development.

1. Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
Component-Based
Architecting Cyber-Physical Systems
Ivica Crnkovic, Ivano Malavolta, Henry
Muccini, Mohammad Sharaf
Unive sity of L’A uila, DISIM Departments | GSSI L’A uila, Italy
Chalmers and Malardalen University, Gothenburg and Vasteras, Sweden

2. Problem Statement
2
RQ:how do component-based principles and
practices are used and support the activity of
architecting CPSs?
P

3. Problem Statement
3
Q: How the Component-Based community can contribute to
engineering CPSs?
Q: How our theories and methods can be adapted to fruitfully
Architecting CPSs?
Q: are these methods encapsulated in new technologies and
integrated with the existing component models?
Q: What are the new design challenges in architecting CPS by
Component-Based Principles and Practices?
P

4. This Study
Means: a Systematic Literature Reviews(SLR)
4
Investigates how component-based principles and practices are
used and support the activity of architecting CPS
We aim to analyze, classify, and understand existing research
on Component-Based Principles and Practices for Architecting
Cyber-Physical Systems according to our extended framework
Classification Framework for Component Models .

5. STUDY DESIGN
5
Identifying
the scope of
our study,
RQ, Goal
• Studies search
• Studies selection
• Data extraction
• Data synthesis
• reasoning on the
obtained findings
• evaluating the
quality of our study

6. STUDY DESIGN - Studies Search and Selection
6

7. 1. The architecting CPS emerged from Embedded Systems
(ES).
2. EFPs not yet fully explored by the community.
3. The extensive use of programming languages suitable for
ES
4. An absence of adaptation and dynamic deployment
7

8. The selected studies are analyzed,
and data are extracted according to
8
The construction
dimension
(i) the interface
(ii) Binding
(iii)communication
.
The lifecycle
dimension
the support
provided, in certain
points of a lifecycle
of components.
EFPs dimension
manage, to
specify, and even
define
compositions
EFPS.

9. 9
The construction
dimension
(i) the interface
(ii) Binding
(iii)communication
.
The lifecycle
dimension
the support
provided, in certain
points of a lifecycle
of components.
EFPs dimension
manage, to
specify, and even
define
compositions
EFPS.

10. Modelling.
The component model rovide support for the modelling and the
design of component-based systems and components.
Implementation.
The component model provides support for generating and
maintaining code.
Storage & Packaging
Since components can be developed separately from systems, there is
a need for their storage and packaging either for the repository or for
a distribution
Deployment.
At a certain point of time, a component is integrated into a system.
10

11. 11
Models are almost always used when
specifying CPS component models: 23 different
modelling languages have been found, with
limited use of the UML.

12. 12

13. Interface
operation-based/port-based
provides/requires
The interface level (syntactic, semantic, behaviour)
distinctive features
Binding
Hierarchical
Endogenous, Exogenous
Interaction
Architectural Style
Communication type (synchronous/asynchronous)
13

14. 14

15. 15

16. Identifies support to manage, to specify, and even
define compositions of certain EFPs.
16
Only one third of the studies support EFPs,
mostly timing properties.

17. General-purpose: component model is not tied to any
domain
Specialized: Component model is specifically tailored to a
given domain
17
General-purpose approaches are far the
most frequent(33 studies ), whereas specialized are
emerging (16 studies)
In specialized :10 out of 16
studies have been published
between
2014 and 2015

18. 18
OTHER RESULTS
Replication package of this study: http://cs.gssi.infn.it/cbse2016

19. Timeline
19
• More than the half of whole primary studies has been
published between 2014 and 2015
• Research on CBSE for CPS is gaining increasing interest
Our study covers the studies published before June 2015

20. 20
Contribution
Instruments
identify which
solution to achieve
the contribution
goals.
Contribution Goals
identifies the
concerns, such as
quality attributes,
process
improvement, etc.
Contribution
Domains
(CPS systems
domains)

21. 21
Enlarge the scope to architecting
cyber-physical Systems
Cover the gap between the needs
present in CPS, and what realized
so far.

22. Università degli Studi dell’Aquila
Component-Based
Architecting Cyber-Physical Systems
Ivica Crnkovic, Ivano Malavolta, Henry
Muccini, Mohammad Sharaf
Unive sity of L’A uila, DISIM Departments | GSSI L’A uila, Italy
Chalmers and Malardalen University, Gothenburg and Vasteras, Sweden