An XML-message based architecture description language and architectural mismatch checking

Current component interfaces, such as those defined by CORBA, are devoid of additional constraints that make helps in the task of composing software, therefore the dependent relations and interaction protocols among components are hidden within the implementations. The "implicity" reduces the composability and makes it difficult to reuse, validate and manage components. This paper presents a message based architectural model and an XML-message based Architecture Description Language (XADL). XADL promotes the description of dependent relations from the implementation level to the architectural level and enhances the interface specification by adding the sequencing, behavior and quality constraints. Furthermore, we formulate the notion of architectural mismatch and propose a checking algorithm to prevent systems from potential mismatches. The use of XML facilitates not only the specification descriptions but also the system implementations, and increases the openness of the whole system as well.