Run-time and atomic weaving of distributed aspects

Run-time weaving of distributed aspects, if performed without any support for atomicity, endangers the global behavioral integrity of the application. Existing aspect-oriented middleware supports run-time weaving of distributed aspects, without addressing this problem. This inherently limits the type of behavioral changes that can be performed at run time. This paper presents a model and an architecture for middleware, named Lasagne, that supports run-time weaving of distributed aspects in an atomic way. The paper makes the case that run-time weaving of distributed aspects is well suited for supporting dynamic and behavioral adaptations that are cross-component, cross-node or cross-layer. Adding support for atomic weaving ensures that such system-wide adaptations are performed in a safe and coordinated way.