A Consistency Verification Method with Semantics for Component-Based Software Designs

The existing consistency checking methods for component-based software designs are unable to check the semantics consistency and the interface consistency because the protocols themselves do not contain these information. In order to enable the consistency checking method to check semantics consistency and interface consistency besides protocol consistency, we propose a consistency checking method by introducing the idea of method semantics into scenario-based specifications. The semantic extended interface automata (SIA) model is utilized to describe the semantics, interface and protocol information of components. The scenario-based specifications are specified by interaction overview diagrams with semantic constrains. Then according to the analysis of the behaviors of SIA model and interaction overview diagrams with semantic constrains, we developed an algorithm to check the consistency between component-based designs and the scenario-based semantic specifications. Our algorithm not only can check the protocol consistency but also the method semantic consistency which includes the type and semantics of methods.