An Artificial DNA for Self-Descripting and Self-Building Embedded Real-Time Systems

Embedded systems are growing more and more complex because of the increasing chip integration density, larger number of chips in distributed applications and demanding application fields (e.g. in cars and in households). Bio-inspired techniques like self-organization are a key feature to handle this complexity. However, self-organization needs a guideline for setting up and managing the system. In biology the structure and organization of a system is coded in its DNA. In this paper we present an approach to use an artificial DNA for that purpose. Since many embedded system scan be composed from a limited number of basic elements, the structure and parameters of such system scan be stored in a compact way representing an artificial DNA deposited in each computation node. This leads to a self-describing system. Based on the DNA, the self-organization mechanisms can build the system autonomously providing a self-building system. System repair and optimization at runtime are also possible, leading to higher robustness, dependability and flexibility.