Building domain specific software architectures from software architectural design patterns

Software design patterns are best practice solutions to common software problems. However, applying design patterns in practice can be difficult since design pattern descriptions are general and can be applied at multiple levels of abstraction. In order to address the aforementioned issue, this research focuses on creating a systematic approach to designing domain specific distributed, real-time and embedded (DRE) software from software architectural design patterns. To address variability across a DRE domain, software product line concepts are used to categorize and organize the features and design patterns. The software architectures produced are also validated through design time simulation. This research is applied and validated using the space flight software (FSW) domain.