Dr Michael Clarke

Keywords: Dynamic Extensibility and Reconfiguration, Reflection, Components, Operating Systems, Middleware, Networking, Multimedia

Ph.D. Thesis (.pdf format)

Previous Research Position

In my first year of Ph.D. study I was involved in the design and implementation of a real time, streaming transport protocol for the SUMO distributed multimedia operating system (Lancaster University’s augmentation of the Chorus real time operating system).

After being encouraged to read further on general operating systems research I became interested in the field of dynamic extensibility. This type of operating system allows applications to dynamically (re)configure only those kernel services they require in order to form an optimal execution environment. The reduced operating system core (sub-kernel) must provide the infrastructure to allow the management of these services, including the elimination of the conflicting interactions that are brought about by differing application demands.

From this work I designed my own system, named DEIMOS, that formed the basis of my Ph.D. thesis. DEIMOS introduced several novelties to the field including; a principled model for reconfiguration via a component model, visualisation of an evolving system through a component graph and the use of a constraint language to prevent a system from evolving in an unsafe way.

Current Research Position

I am currently working as a Senior Research Associate on the OpenORB reflective middleware project. This work involves the application defined dynamic (re)configuration of componentised middleware services using reflective techniques. Consequently, I have been able to draw many parallels and distinctions between performing dynamic reconfiguration in the operating system and the middleware. My specific contribution involves the design and coding of a lightweight and efficient implementation of the OpenORB philosophies. To this end I have produced and made use of a modified component model (OpenCOM) which enhances Microsoft's COM with dynamic, reflective reconfiguration capabilities. In addition, I have implemented a full suite of OpenCOM based middleware components and applications that demonstrate the power, flexibility and usefulness of our approach to the design of middleware.

Currently, the source for this project utilises 50,000 lines of C++ and IDL code and it is hoped it will be made publicly available soon. In addition, future work involves the implementation of a graphical (re)configuration tool which will allow convenient component manipulation and which will visually demonstrate the interactions that take place between components as they are (re)configured.

Research Publications by Area

Middleware

Coulson, G., Blair, G.S., Clarke, M., Parlavantzas, N., "The Design of a Configurable and Reconfigurable Middleware Platform". To appear in: The Journal of Distributed Computing, 2001.

Clarke, M., Blair, G.S., Coulson, G., Parlavantzas, N., "An Efficient Component Model for the Construction of Adaptive Middleware". Proceedings of the IFIP / ACM International Conference on Distributed Systems Platforms (Middleware'2001), Heidelberg, Germany, November 2001.

Blair, G.S., Coulson, G., Clarke, M., Parlavantzas, N., "Performance and Integrity in the OpenORB Reflective Middleware". Extended Abstract. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Metalevel Architectures and Separation of Crosscutting Concerns (Reflection'2001), Kyoto, Japan, September 2001.

Blair, G.S., Coulson, G., Andersen, A., Blair, L., Clarke, M., Costa, F., Duran-Limon, H., Fitzpatrick, T., Johnston, L., Moreira, R., Parlavantzas, N., Saikoski, K., “The Design and Implementation of OpenORB v2”. IEEE Distributed Systems Online, Special Issue on Reflective Middleware, 2001.

Parlavantzas, N., Coulson, G., Clarke, M., Blair, G.,"Towards a Reflective Component Based Middleware Architecture". Proceedings of the Workshop on Reflective and Metalevel Architectures at ECOOP'2000, Sophia Antipolis and Cannes, France, June 2000.

Coulson, G., Clarke, M. "A Distributed Object Platform Infrastructure for Multimedia Applications". Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on High Performance Protocol Architectures (HIPPARCH'97), Uppsala, Sweden, June 1997.

Operating Systems

Clarke, M., "Operating System Support for Emerging Application Domains". Ph.D. thesis, Technical Report MPG-00-12, Computing Dept.,  Lancaster University, U.K., March 2000.

Clarke, M., Coulson, G. "An Explicit Binding Model for Runtime Extensible Operating Systems". Proceedings of the Workshop on Object-Oriented Operating Systems at ECOOP'99, Lisbon, Portugal, June 1999.

Clarke, M., Coulson, G. "Dynamic Memory Model Reconfiguration in DEIMOS". Proceedings of the 1st Conference Francaise sur les Systemes d'Exploitation (CFSE'1), Rennes, France, June 1999.

Clarke, M., Coulson, G. "An Architecture for Dynamically Extensible Operating Systems". Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Configurable Distributed Systems (ICCDS'98), Annapolis MD, USA, May 1998.

Networking

Clarke, M., Fitzpatrick, T., Coulson, G. "Adaptive System Support for Multimedia in Mobile End-Systems". Proceedings of the 3rd Communications Networks Symposium, pp 54-57, Manchester, U.K., July 1996.