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 are coded in its DNA. In this paper, we present an approach to use an artificial DNA for that purpose. Because many embedded systems can be composed from a limited number of basic elements, the structure and parameters of such systems can 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. Copyright (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.