Integrating COTS software components into dependable software architectures

This paper considers the problem of integrating commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software components into systems with high dependability requirements. These components, by their very nature, are built to be reused as black boxes that cannot be modified. Instead, the system architect has to rely on techniques external with respect to the component for resolving mismatches of the services required and provided that might arise in the interaction of the component and its environment. This paper proposes an architectural solution to turning COTS components into idealised fault-tolerant COTS components by adding protective wrappers to them.