A layered architecture for real-time systems

Most of the design approaches for real-time systems tend to be application-specific or suitable only for some particular environment (parallel processing or distributed environments). Therefore minor changes to the application involves massive redesign cost. A structured approach to the design of real-time systems helps in making the system flexible to suit a range of applications and adaptable to changes. We propose a Layered Architecture for Real-Time Systems (LARTS) which consists of a hierarchical set of layers based on well-defined functions for real-time applications. The scope of the proposed architecture is explored through a study of the mapping of LARTS to parallel and distributed environments.