Providing a Birds Eye View on the Execution of Distributed, Reactive Systems using Collaborations

Abstract

This thesis studies the use of collaborations as a mean to visualize behaviour of an observed distributed reactiv system. The work is inspired by previous work where an approach using elementary collaborations, that is collaborations with only two participants, visualized a running system. This work investigates how the previous work can be enhanched by adding the possibility to visualize systsem behaviour at different abstraction levels and improve usability, scalabiliy and overview in the visualization. A monitor for the visulization of distributed reactiv systems will be implemented. A system model and trace information from the obeserved system will be used in order to realize the visualization. By adding the possibility to visualize nested collaborations, a systems behaviour can be visualized at different levels of abstraction. The necessary constraint on the model of a system, and an algorithm for the detection of nested collaboration in the observed system, is suggested and implemented. An automatic approach for the loading of data from a model of the observed system is added to improve uasbility. Additional filtering and layout mechanisms are implemented in order to provide better overview in the visualization. A post-mortem approach to visalization is taken in order to generate a correct visualzation. The speed of the visualzation can be controlled by the user. The possibility to reverse the visualization is also implemented.