Object oriented component and framework architecture for signal processing

Abstract

A signal intelligence system comprising a plurality of software components that are programmable to provide a signal intelligence function. The signal intelligence system includes a processor system having a plurality of interconnected processor devices and a plurality of processor managers that are connected to the processor devices and are configured to control software components associated with the processor devices. Further, the signal intelligence system has a framework manager that is configured to interact with the plurality of processor managers to control the processor devices and effectuate the signal intelligence function

1 . A layered architecture system, comprising:
 at least one module, operating on a first layer of a plurality of layers, configured to interact directly with any other module on the first layer; and   an interface layer, adapted between the first layer and a second layer of the plurality of layers at a layer boundary, configured to provide a common interface between the at least one module and the second layer in accordance to an interface definition at the layer boundary.   
     
     
         2 . The layered architecture system of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of layers comprises an operating system layer acting as an interface between a computer hardware layer and a distributed framework layer. 
     
     
         3 . The layered architecture system of  claim 2 , wherein modules corresponding to the distributed framework layer interact with modules corresponding to the computer hardware layer via an operating system application programming interface. 
     
     
         4 . The layered architecture system of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of layers comprises a distributed framework layer that includes a framework manager and at least one processor manager configured to operate on the distributed framework layer. 
     
     
         5 . The layered architecture system of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of layers comprises an application component layer including a plurality of components configured to operate on the application component layer; and
 component base classes adapted to reside on a component base classes layer that is configured to interface between the application component layer and a distributed framework layer according to the interface definition.   
     
     
         6 . The layered architecture system of  claim 3 , wherein the operating system application programming interface is a common interface, used by a plurality of components, translated from a native operating system. 
     
     
         7 . The layered architecture system of  claim 6 , wherein the plurality of components use the operating system application programming interface layer. 
     
     
         8 . An article of manufacture including a computer-readable medium having a plan stored thereon that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations of the plan comprising:
 configuring a plurality of components that provide at least one function using a processor;   communicatively connecting the plurality of components and the processor;   passing information identifying at least one of the plurality of components to associated processor managers of respective ones of a plurality of computers,
 wherein the associated processor managers are configured to download the at least one of the plurality of components to the respective ones of the computers; 
   identifying communicative connections between individual components of the plurality of components on a data communication fabric;   establishing the identified communicative connections between the individual components of the plurality of components on the data communication fabric; and   specifying a plurality of functions executed by a local distributed processor operating the individual components of the plurality of components.   
     
     
         9 . The article of manufacture of  claim 8 , wherein the plan is a preformatted file comprising a configuration of the plurality of components to be used to solve a particular signal processing problem. 
     
     
         10 . The article of manufacture of  claim 8 , wherein the plan defines initial parameter values of the plurality of components. 
     
     
         11 . The article of manufacture of  claim 8 , wherein the plan defines system functionality and capability at runtime. 
     
     
         12 . The article of manufacture of  claim 8 , wherein the plan defines interconnection communication mechanisms. 
     
     
         13 . The article of manufacture of  claim 12 , wherein the interconnection communication mechanisms comprise streams of data to be passed between the components to perform aggregate system processing. 
     
     
         14 . The article of manufacture of  claim 12 , wherein the interconnection communication mechanisms communicatively connect an output port to an input port using an associated protocol handshake. 
     
     
         15 . The article of manufacture of  claim 8 , wherein the computer-readable medium has stored thereon at least one more plan, and
 wherein, when the at least one more plan is executed by the computing device, the computing device is configured to perform operations of the plan and the at least one more plan simultaneously.   
     
     
         16 . The article of manufacture of  claim 15 , wherein the plan and the at least one more plan shares usage of components. 
     
     
         17 . The article of manufacture of  claim 8 , wherein the plan is reconfigurable when one or more of the processors in the system fails. 
     
     
         18 . The article of manufacture of  claim 8 , wherein the plan defines a communication type and the communication type is sent to ports when communications are established. 
     
     
         19 . A method of operating a layered architecture system, comprising:
 configuring at least one module operating on a first layer of a plurality of layers to interact directly with any other module on the first layer;   adapting an interface between the first layer and a second layer of the plurality of layers at a layer boundary, wherein the plurality of layers comprises an application component layer including a plurality of components; and   configuring the interface to control the at least one module interacting with a different module on the second layer in accordance to an interface definition at the layer boundary.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising:
 configuring the plurality of components to operate on the application component layer;   adapting component base classes to reside on a component base classes layer; and   configuring the component base classes layer to interface between the application component layer and a distributed framework layer according to the interface definition.