A Testbed to Support Collaboration Among Distributed Designers for Reverse Engineering, Re-Engineering and Fast Manufacturing

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software products are being included in ever more complex and critical systems. There are clearly advantages to considering the use of COTS in such systems, but given the rigorous needs of such critical systems or subsystems, there are concerns about the suitability of COTS software for such applications. The AIAA’s Software Systems Technical Committee and the AIAA’s Computer Systems Technical Committee have undertaken an effort to produce a guidebook that captures issues related to the consideration and use of COTS products in these large, complex systems, with a special emphasis on those risks and risk mitigation approaches that relate to mission critical systems. This guidebook identifies a set of characteristics of mission critical systems that makes the consideration, selection and validation processes of COTS products (hardware, software, subsystems, etc.) an emerging factor in systems definition, development and acceptance. The guidebook discusses a large number of risk areas related to using COTS software products in mission critical systems and identifies various mitigation approaches to the risks. It includes detailed processes for selecting and evaluating the products and considerations for using COTS software products within the overall context of the software development life cycle standardized in IEEE/EIA 12207. Mission critical system characteristics such as reliability, safety, availability, maintainability and certification tend to influence whether or not COTS software should be considered for a given application. Once the suitability of COTS software has been determined, then it is possible that additional requirements may be placed on the product and/or the product’s vendor for such mission critical applications. Further, it is possible that certain system requirements and expectations may need to be modified because of the inclusion of COTS software products in that system. As COTS products continue to be considered as candidates for inclusion within mission critical systems, there are likely to be additional concerns and factors to emerge that will influence how both acquirers and suppliers decide if and/or when to use COTS products. Ongoing monitoring of this technology area seems to be warranted.

The use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software has become more and more important in state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice software and system development. The use of COTS software promises faster time-to-market, reduced development costs, increased productivity, and the possibility for companies to focus on their own core competencies. At the same time, COTS software increases risks, such as the economic instability of the COTS software vendor, unknown quality properties of the COTS software in use, and side-effects of the COTS software on the final product. Typically, COTS-based development, in parallel with the traditional development cycle (e.g. waterfall, spiral), consists of four phases. The first phase (COTS assessment and selection) is the most crucial phase in the COTS-based cycle, since long-term decisions about which COTS software to use in a software system are made there. A late recognition that the wrong COTS software was used can become extremely costly for a software organization. This paper presents a repeatable, cost-efficient and systematic method for performing measurement-based COTS assessment and selection. Moreover, cost/benefit analysis results of two industrial pilot projects, in which the method was successfully applied, are presented.

Over the last decade the United States Government has significantly increased its use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software as stand-alone solutions and as components in safety-critical systems. This increased use stems from the realization that pre-existing software products can be a means of lowering development costs, shortening development time, and keeping pace with the changing software market. The Federal government, particularly with regards to safety-critical systems, has found that COTS software is currently not plug-and-play, has significant tradeoffs, and usually contains a cradle-to-grave dependence on the software manufacturer. Unfortunately, there is currently no standard best commercial practice with regard to the acceptance of COTS software. Ad hoc attempts to apply standards for commercial software acceptance have been based upon subjective criteria and have proven to be imprecise and prone to error. Moreover, acceptability in safety-critical systems generally demands analysis of source code. Many software vendors, however, have chosen to keep all such source code proprietary due to liability and intellectual property concerns. When the source code is not available, there is very little that can be done to ensure the safety, reliability, and integrity of the software. This paper discusses the COTS Score, an approach that aids in determining the acceptability of COTS software. The process involves the application of predictive techniques used for financial credit scoring to the COTS domain. The methodology addresses the issue of acceptability by incorporating both functional and environmental software measures related to reliability, compatibility, certifiability, obsolescence, and life cycle including trade-off analyses. This approach satisfies NASA and ISO 9001 requirements to define an acceptance procedure for COTS software.

Using commercial off the shelf (COTS) computing equipment in military aircraft applications may cause harmful electromagnetic interference (EMI) to other on-board systems, including communication and navigation equipment. An electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) design approach to successfully integrate COTS equipment into an existing military aircraft is described. The following system design and development steps are outlined: (1) requirements definition, (2) preliminary EMC analysis, (3) EMC control measure design, (4) COTS equipment EMI characterization tests, and (5) system level EMC verification.

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software has become a crucial component of many of today’s mission- and safety-critical products. As these products have proliferated internationally, global demand for software safety and performance quality has increased. Unfortunately, the current state-of-the-art in software assessment technology has not matured to the point where well-established and widely accepted schemes for evaluating COTS software quality have been presented. Without insight into the source code, COTS software users depend on a subjective assessment of attributes described by performance metrics, behavioral descriptions, and/or historical product data. Published techniques that attempt to formalize the above approach are often less than successful due to ill-defined and subjective metrics, and the naive assumption of independence between attributes. Recently, software standards have been seen as a means of improving the evaluation process by providing an acknowledged criterion for software metric comparison. Given the stated issues, is it possible to develop a standards-based dependency model of well-defined attributes that does not depend on naive assumptions? The answer to this question is yes. This paper describes a process that can be used to extract acyclic dependency models, if they exist, from various software product quality standards. Application of the extraction process will be used to reveal the attribute dependency model of the international software standard ISO/IEC 9126-1. Not only can this process be used for COTS software evaluation, but it can also be used by standards making bodies to clarify the reasoning, justifications and causal implications they employ when developing standards.

The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model is a novel way of delivering software applications. In this paper, we present an analytical model to study the competition between the SaaS and the traditional COTS (Commercial off-the-shelf) software. The main research goal is to analyze the pricing strategy of the SaaS in a competitive setting. The model captures the most salient differences between the SaaS and COTS, including their distinct pricing structures, user initial setup costs, system customization levels, and delivery channels. We find that the two could coexist in a competitive market in the long run, and more importantly, we show how the SaaS could gradually take over the whole market even when its quality is inferior. Surprisingly, our analysis shows that the SaaS should raise (reduce) its prices when its software quality declines (increases) over time (in the relative sense).Keywordsthe SaaS business modelpricing strategycompetitionthe COTS software

This paper provides an overview of network architecture, network building block, and network application issues involved in the insertion of Fibre Channel (FC) Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology into avionics systems. At the network architecture level, FC supports a simple and low cost Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) topology which is extensible to fabric switch architectures. A COTS FC testbed is described which has been constructed to characterize FC-AL performance for defined domain-specific avionics scenarios. The testbed is also being used to prototype an avionics multimedia network via integration of FC COTS network controllers and software with streaming video encoders and decoders. Based on lessons learned from the testbed activity and other FC system architecture insertion studies, a set of FC based domain extended products suitable for insertion into avionics systems is identified. Finally future activities required to continue toward a fully capable FC Avionics Multimedia Network (AMN) are described.

A basic premise of the DoD Global Broadcast Service (GBS) is the leveraging of commercial technology and the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. Driven by the high cost associated with new development and "militarization", and the reality of decreasing defense budgets this trend is likely to continue and expand. It is important to ensure that military capability is not unduly compromised in this process, and that COTS equipment and components do not become a "weak link in the chain". This paper examines the use of COTS in the GBS program and draws conclusions regarding the appropriateness of these actions.

Technology insertion into an existing system or subsystem requires careful planning and evaluation. Because the technology is new, there is often limited information upon which to base decisions. Further, decisions about technology insertion are typically made in the very early stages of a project when detailed information is sparse. Under these circumstances, the available information is typically linguistic, and fuzzy methods can be used to significant advantage in this environment. The implementation discussed in this paper employs an Excel spread sheet for user interface, and it employs COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf Technology) software for an inference engine. Heuristic based models are developed to evaluate risk in technology insertion. Risk elements include: budget risk, schedule risk, and performance risk. Results with an example problem are described to illustrate the fuzzy logic method, and conclusions are drawn regarding the advantages of this technique.

Software robustness problems may hinder the use of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software modules and legacy software modules in mission-critical and safety-critical applications. This research focuses on hardening COTS and legacy software modules against robustness failures triggered by exceptional inputs. An automated approach is presented that is capable of identifying the triggers of the robustness failures. A fault model-the dimensionality model-is used to guide analysis. An experiment is described which demonstrates the feasibility of automating the process of analyzing failure causes and hardening against certain data types in POSIX function calls, for example, NULL pointer values and scalar data types such as INT and FLOAT. The final goal of this research is to provide users a tool to harden COTS and legacy software modules automatically.

The global shift toward sustainable energy has significantly increased reliance on electrical energy conversion, leading to the widespread use of switching-based power converters and other non-linear loads across various applications, including in ship electrical systems. Although these technologies support energy efficiency and enhance control capabilities, their high-speed switching (characterized by rapid, i.e., high dV/dt and dI/dt) generates conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI). The<br/>frequency range of 2 kHz to 150 kHz is raising concerns as many power converters operate within this range for their switching frequency. In both commercial and naval ships, conducted EMI often disrupts power quality and poses challenges in fulfilling EMC requirements. Due to the high cost and limited availability of marine-certified equipment, many ship system integrators opt to install commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices onboard. However, these devices are not originally designed for shipboard electrical conditions, which typically have an isolated terra (IT) configuration. This introduces significant EMI challenges, particularly noise that propagates through conductive parts and parasitic capacitances.<br/>Therefore, this thesis aims to get a better understanding of the underlying problem by investigating the distribution and behavior of EMI generated by COTS equipment in shipboard electrical environments, and thus to design and implement corrective measures. It begins with a systematic literature review of scientific databases such as Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) to analyze research trends of conducted emission (CE) issues in ships over the past 23 years. Then examines CE behavior using a multipoint measurement technique, allowing simultaneous observation across multiple locations. It further explores the impact of integrating COTS equipment into ship power systems and characterizes the EMI behavior of COTS-based systems under ship-specific power quality disturbance.<br/>The findings indicate that COTS equipment contributes to harmonics and noise above 2 kHz, primarily associated with the non-linearity of pulse-width modulation (PWM) switching. Additionally, shipboard power quality disturbances, such as voltage sags, swells, and frequency deviations, further impact the CE behavior of COTS-based systems. Notably, frequency deviations in uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems of ship electrical systems can induce amplitude modulation, leading to current beats and sideband noise, and even to spontaneous switching-off, thus causing electromagnetic disturbance. The study also examines the role of parasitic capacitance in common mode (CM) current distribution within shipboard electrical systems. High ground impedance of IT systems makes CM currents tend to flow through parasitic capacitance, making parasitic capacitance distribution a key factor in EMI propagation in ships. To address these challenges, a mitigation strategy for EMI suppression in ship power systems is proposed. This method has been successfully implemented on an actual ship. Research in this thesis offers insights into managing CE when integrating COTS equipment into ships, helping reduce EMI disturbances in onboard systems.

This paper describes results of a planned comprehensive test program to identify the realistic dynamic environment commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment will experience when utilized in Military Ground Mobile Command Control, Communication, Computer, and Intelligence (C4I) systems housed in DoD Standard Family Tactical Shelters. COTS equipment are generally designed for office use and lack robustness for military use in a ground mobile tactical environment. A realistic dynamic design criteria must be utilized for an appropriate mounting and/or isolation system design in the integration of a shelter. Acceleration spectral density functions are described to assist the designer in providing a COTS-based, survivable, cost-effective ground mobile tactical shelter-based C4I System.

Software re-engineering, a recent research area includes reverse engineering & forward engineering while Hybrid re-engineering incorporates both the engineering processes where reverse engineering applies to existing system code to extract design & requirements, although this is often used as means to mitigate risks & reduced costs of operation and maintaining the software system. This paper briefly describes traditional re-engineering then discusses the emerging process of hybrid-reengineering which is often used as means to simplify the cumbersome tasks. The paper represents how maintenance is going to be effect with the help of given software engineering approaches. An analysis of various possible risks, their impact and mapping with various attributes is correspondingly depicted. This paper is also presenting the way to reduce the impact of most of these risks by using hybrid re-engineering. Keyword Used : Hybrid re-engineering, commercial off the Shelf (COTS), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Reengineering, Model Driven Engineering (MDE), Defect Removal Efficiency (DRE) and Maintenance, Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), Mean Time to Failure (MTTF), Engineering (Engg.).

This paper describes the development of a complete Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system (navigation software + ground station + specific aircraft) using Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) equipment. This development includes conceptual design and tests, as well as hardware and software development. The UAV can be remotely piloted from a ground station equipped with a laptop computer, real-time video, telemetry, interface devices, flight controls (joystick), virtual reality glasses (VRG) and dedicated software. The software installed on the ground station laptop, monitors flight information, captures/updates video and telemetry data in real time, and processes the Head-Up-Display imagery. Using a Synthetic Vision Navigation System (software under development) a 3D path route is created as a second navigation reference. This reference can be used to aid the pilot in navigation. All interfaces between pilot and ground station equipment are user friendly and are shown on the laptop screen and/or on the VRG. The VRG allow for complete pilot immersion into the navigation system.

This paper presents a software tool for integrating a child-friendly computer system based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components. The effective selection of COTS components, which meet a child’s requirements and expectations, is a non-trivial and challenging optimization problem. However, many published papers consider the functional requirements while ignoring usability requirements. The functional requirements are concerned with what the computer should be able to do, whereas the usability requirements are concerned with the extent to which the child is able to learn effectively and efficiently throughout the COTS based computer. In this paper, the authors propose an iterative five-task selection and integration of COTS process, including both hardware devices and software modules, to be automated. The core of the automated tool is employing Simulated Annealing (SA) to search the design space to match, select, and integrate COTS components with a maximal satisfaction while neither exceeding a given budget nor violating child and performance constraints. A Monte Carlo simulator was utilized to evaluate the goodness of the COTS based computer design. Computational results based on building a computer for a child handwriting e-learning application show feasibility of SPACots in finding a solution satisfying all constraints while reducing the cost by 58%.