A new approach for adopting communication systems to new constraints at runtime

Communication systems are the corner stones of (almost) each automation system. Significant advances have been made in developing such software systems with modern programming paradigms, using software product lines, employing specifications, norms, frameworks, libraries and tools. However, flexibility in terms of incorporating modifications of device profiles, communication protocols and new devices and machines while a system is in full operations is still an open problem. Many research activities have focused on reuse at design and implementation time, instead of been capable to modify systems at runtime. A methodology and software architecture will be presented in this paper to modify parts of a system while other parts stay in service.