Software Assembly Workbench: how to construct software like hardware

The paper describes an approach for assembling software by combining reusable building blocks, much in the way hardware is being designed. The approach uses a Software Assembly Workbench and is predicated on the existence of a Network Execution Platform. The Network Execution Platform is a "network computer" that performs network functions necessary to execute typical services. Its operating system provides access to telecommunication and computing functionality. The Software Assembly Workbench is based on two adjacent software layers. The service (upper) layer and the component (intermediate) layer. These two layers require the implementation of a third (lower) layer, the capability layer, which resides on the Network Execution Platform. Before being shipped for execution on the Network Execution Platform, the software constructed using the two Software Workbench is first verified through assembly simulation. Both the execution platform and the application software are instrumented for failure detection and management. The uniqueness of this approach resides in our ability to rapidly create software that can be dependably executed in a distributed telecommunication network.<>