Channel-based Coordination Models and Languages for Component Composition: A Survey

This paper surveys the field of channel-based coordination models for component composition. Composition of systems out of components can be done by interaction on a component level or by coordinating components from the outside. Coordination from the outside, also called exogenous coordination, imposes many advantages to software systems like easy reusability and maintainability or the ability to dynamically plug in new components into a system. Exogenous coordination can be done by using channels to connect components. Components passively exchange data items via channels, the communication protocol is given by the topology of the connections and the behavior of the channels. Examples for channel behaviors are synchronous or asynchronous, lossy or blocking channels. This paper discusses coordination models and languages dealing with channelbased component composition.