Quality driven multimode DSP software architecture development
Vtt Publications, Anu Purhonen · 2002
Traditionally, DSP software development has concentrated on optimising the algorithms. The future wireless communication systems create challenges to the DSP software. In order to handle the new requirements, more emphasis has been placed on software architecture. This thesis examines the way quality driven architecture development can be applied to multimode DSP software. First, the main quality attributes for DSP software are defined. Performance ensures that the timing requirements are fulfilled, with simultaneously minimising the resource usage. Cost attribute ensures that the development of the system is affordable. Variability is for evaluating how well the architecture can adapt to changes that are required to the system during its lifetime. It is proposed that the DSP software architecture should be described with four architectural views. A logical view shows the required functionality in an implementation independent way; a physical view depicts the deployment of logical components to the hardware architecture and the interfaces that are relevant to the software; a process view is used for understanding the runtime functionality of the system; a development view describes how the system is actually implemented with today’s software platforms and technologies. The process of developing the architectural views is iterative and incremental. More details are added to the diagrams when the development continues. View development is a series of iterations between refinement of architectural structures and evaluation of the decisions made. An evaluation strategy is presented for comparing architectural decisions against quality requirements. The results are validated with a case study of a future multimedia terminal that supports three systems: GSM, WLAN, and WCDMA. It is shown that the quality-driven development clarifies the design decisions so that it is easier to compare and refine architecture candidates.