DARPADARPA

Dr. Douglas C. Schmidt, DARPA/ITO

Thoughts on Maintaining IT Superiority in the Face of

Commoditization

Thursday, April 20, 2023

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High-performance, real-time, fault-tolerant, and secure systems

Adaptive & reflective autonomous distributed embedded systems

Power-aware ad hoc, mobile, distributed, & embedded systems

Middleware, Frameworks, & Components

Patterns & Pattern Languages

Open-source & Standards

Addressing the COTS “Crisis”

However, this trend presents many vexing R&D challenges for mission-critical DoD systems, e.g., • Inflexibility and lack of QoS• Security & global competition

Distributed systems increasingly must reuse commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware & software• i.e., COTS is essential to R&D success

Why DARPA should care:

• Recent advances in COTS software technology can help to fundamentally reshape distributed embedded system R&D

• Despite IT commodization, progress in COTS hardware & software is often not applicable for mission-critical DoD distributed embedded systems

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There are multiple COTS layers & research/

business opportunities

Historically, mission-critical apps were built directly atop hardware

The domain-specific services layer is where system integrators can provide the most value & derive the most benefits

The domain-specific services layer is where system integrators can provide the most value & derive the most benefits

The Evolution of COTS

Standards-based COTS middleware helps:•Leverage hardware/software technology advances

•Evolve to new environments & requirements

& OS•This was extremely tedious, error-prone, & costly over system life-cycles

•QoS specification & enforcement

•Real-time features & optimizations

•Layered resource management

•Transparent power management

Early COTS middleware lacked:

Advanced R&D has address some, but by no means all, of these issues

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•More emphasis on integration rather than programming

•Increased technology convergence & standardization

•Mass market economies of scale for technology & personnel

•More disruptive technologies & global competition

•Lower priced--but often lower quality--hardware & software components

•The decline of internally funded R&D•Potential for complexity cap in next-generation complex systems

Consequences of COTS & IT Commoditization

Not all trends bode well for long-term competitiveness of traditional R&D leaders

Ultimately, competitiveness will depend upon longer-term R&D efforts on complex distributed & embedded systems

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DARPADARPAThe DARPA/ITO Embedded

Systems Family of Programs

SECSEC• Hybrid, adaptive, control & computationHybrid, adaptive, control & computation

QuorumQuorum• Quality-of-service & translucent layers

MoBIESMoBIES• Design technology & software CAD

ARMSARMS• Adaptive & reflective middlewareAdaptive & reflective middleware

PCESPCES• Composable embedded systems

NESTNEST• Deeply networked embedded systems

PCAPCA• Polymorphous computing architecture

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DARPADARPAHow DARPA is Making a

Difference in COTS

Revolutionary changes in software process: Open-source, refactoring, extreme programming (XP), advanced V&V techniques

Standards-based QoS-enabled Middleware: Pluggable service & micro-protocol components & reusable “semi-complete” application frameworks

Why middleware-centric reuse works1.Hardware advances

•e.g., faster CPUs & networks2.Software/system architecture

advances•e.g., inter-layer optimizations & meta-programming mechanisms

3.Economic necessity•e.g., global competition for customers & engineers

Patterns and Pattern Languages: Generate software architectures by capturing recurring structures & dynamics & by resolving design forces

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DARPADARPAConcluding Remarks

There will be little or no incentive for industry to improve COTS hardware & software as long as:1. Most users emphasize price

& features over quality & scalability

2. Vendors continue to make $$$ selling lower-quality products inexpensively & en masse

3. There’s no credible competition or alternatives

4. Fundamental R&D funding levels continue to decline relative to venture capital

How DARPA can help the US maintain IT superiority•Ensure credible competition & alternatives, e.g.,•Support R&D to evolve the confidence of commodity IT

•Guide, rather than follow (or ignore) COTS maturation & standardization

•Raise the bar for DoD contractors who participate in DARPA R&D programs

•Stabilize funding of fundamental IT R&D challenges for complex systems