Representing Formal Component Models in OSGi

Formal component models have been subject to research for decades, but current component frameworks hardly reflect their capabilities with respect to composition, dependency management and interaction modeling. Thus the frameworks don’t exploit the benefits of formal component models like understandability and ease of maintenance, which are enabled when software is composed of hierarchical and reusable components that are loosely coupled, self-describing and self-contained. In this contribution, we try to examine the discrepancies between the state of research and the capabilities of an existing module framework, the widely-used OSGi bundle management framework for the Java platform. Based on this we propose modifications and enhancements to the OSGi framework that allow to exploit the benefits of formal component models in OSGi-based applications.