Communication Protocol Decomposition and Component-based Protocol Submodule

Due to evolving network technologies as well as increased and varying demands of modern applications on embedded systems, general-purpose protocol stacks are not always adequate. We examine the usefulness of component-based software engineering for the implementation of software communication systems. We present an architecture that allows dividing protocol software into fully de-coupled components. By plugging required components together, that is, loading proper protocol submodules for communication services, we rapidly prototype flexible, robust, and application-tailored communication protocols. The primary goal is the configurability of communication services, that is, the configurability of protocol submodules for each communication service according to application requirements and network capabilities. The achieved communication system supports efficiently and coordinately the multiple communication services customized by the coexisting applications.