Adopting a software component model in real-time systems development

Component-based software engineering (CBSE) and the use of (de-facto) standard component models have gained popularity in recent years, particularly in the development of desktop and server-side software. This paper presents a motivation for applying CBSE to realtime systems and discusses the consequences of adopting a software component model in the development of such systems. Specifically, the consequences of adopting Microsoft´s COM, DCOM, and .NET models are analyzed. The most important aspects of these models are discussed in an incremental fashion. The analysis considers both real-time systems in general, and a real-life industrial control system where some aspects the COM model have been adopted. It is concluded that adopting these models makes it possible to meet real-time requirements, but that some overhead must be expected and that special precautions may have to be taken to prevent loss of real-time predictability.