HLA: A Standards Effort as Architectural Style

Proceedings of the Second International Software Architecture Workshop (ISAW2) , October 1996.

Author: Robert Allen

Abstract

In this position paper we introduce a case study, the DoD ``High Level Architecture for Simulations (HLA),'' and briefly discuss our efforts to apply \wright, an architectural description language, to the HLA. Our work on HLA has focused on understanding the HLA as an architectural style, concentrating on the Interface Specification (IFSpec) description of the ``Runtime Infrastructure (RTI)'' as the central architectural design issue. Specifically, we have used Wright, a formal architectural description language, to characterize the RTI and analyze a number of its properties. By providing an analysis of the properties of the RTI as described by the IFSpec, we can help the standards committee to determine whether the IFSpec ensures the properties that they want and to discover inconsistencies or other weaknesses of the specification.

Keywords: Software architecture, architectural specification, architectural style, case studies, HLA.

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