Capture, Reuse, and Validation of Requirements and Analysis Patterns
for Mobile Systems

Rossana Maria de Castro Andrade

Thesis
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science
under the auspices of the Ottawa-Carleton Institute of Computer Science
School of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE),

University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
© Rossana Andrade, May 2001

Abstract

In the mobile wireless communication domain, different systems apply
common solutions to similar functional and architectural design
problems. The recognition of these commonalities is a starting point
towards reconciling differences and leading possibly to better ways to
interwork these systems and to develop new ones. There is therefore a
need for capturing these commonalities that can be fulfilled by the use
of the pattern concept, which has been applied to document recurring
problems and solutions in software engineering.

This research develops a method to extract such common problems and
solutions and to document them as patterns. These behavioral and
structural patterns are grouped into a pattern language in order to
describe how they work together to solve recurring problems in the
mobile communication domain. The examples given are related to mobility
and radio resource management functions in second and third generation
systems. The pattern language for Mobility and Radio Resource management
(MoRaR) makes it possible to generate different requirements and analysis
models for mobile systems.

In addition, this thesis proposes an approach for reuse and validation
of the MoRaR pattern language that includes a combination of different
techniques at the early stages of the system development process
and evolution. Use Case Maps (UCMs) describe the requirements and the
analysis models, which the Language Of Temporal Ordering Specifications
(LOTOS) is applied to formally specify and to validate these models.
Message Sequence Charts (MSCs) are used to represent the LOTOS validation
traces at the design stage. These techniques provide confidence in
the correctness of the pattern reuse. According to the system needs,
mobile system designers are able to reuse and to validate each pattern
individually or a set of the patterns described within the MoRaR pattern
language.

Three case studies are considered in this thesis to show the application
of the approach for reuse and validation: the development of a UCM
framework for mobile system requirements and analysis models; the addition
of a second generation feature and a generic reference model of a third
generation system to the framework; and the addition of patterns to a
typical wireless mobile ATM network.