Dynamic architectural connectors in cooperative software systems

In cooperative software systems, the interconnection relationships between components are often dynamic and unpredictable and therefore connectors have to be created dynamically. In this paper, we bring forward the concept of dynamic architectural connector to provide dynamic interconnectivities for components. This paper proposes an automated approach based on software agents to generate dynamic connectors. In the approach, dynamic interaction relationships are established via negotiations and dynamic connectors are generated automatically as high-order entities via taking the behavior specifications and the ontologies of components as arguments. Based on the formal study on the interconnectivities of components, the approach is proved competent for generating dynamic connectors that can satisfy the requirements for providing correct dynamic interconnectivities for components.