Toward Dynamism in Distributed Lingua Franca Programs

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Distributed systems often require dynamic capabilities to ensure adaptability, efficiency, and fault-tolerance. In applications where determinism and timing are crucial, a clear and well-defined approach to deterministic dynamism is much needed, but inherently difficult to define. This letter gives dynamism deterministic semantics, thus enabling precise and repeatable behavior. To this end, we select the Lingua Franca (LF) coordination language that is based on the reactor model, and introduce dynamism to the distributed LF programs, referred to as federations. This letter outlines the challenges associated with incorporating transient federates, which are capable of joining and leaving the federation at arbitrary times, and proposes solutions to the identified problems. A realistic example of an online auction system is used to illustrate the approach. Furthermore, the potential applications of this mechanism are discussed, along with the challenges that need to be addressed.