This paper considers the problem of integrating commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software components into systems with high dependability requirements. These components, by their very nature, are built to be reused as black boxes that cannot be modified. Instead, the system architect has to rely on techniques external with respect to the component for resolving mismatches of the services required and provided that might arise in the interaction of the component and its environment. This paper proposes an architectural solution to turning COTS components into idealised fault-tolerant COTS components by adding protective wrappers to them.

This paper presents a component model for designing and implementing flexible software components in Java. Our model defines a mapping of how the fundamental concepts of component-based development (CBD) should be implemented using the object-oriented (OO) constructs, available in the Java programming language. The benefit of this mapping is to shorten the distance between component-based software architecture and its implementation, enhancing the reusability, adaptability and maintainability of component-based software systems.

This paper considers the problem of integrating Commercial offthe-shelf (COTS) components into systems with high dependability requirements. Such components are built to be reused as black boxes that cannot be modified. The system architect has to rely on techniques that are external to the component for resolving mismatches between the services required and provided that might arise in the interaction of the component and its environment. The paper puts forward an approach that employs the layer-based C2 architectural style for structuring error detection and recovery mechanisms to be added to the component during system integration.