What design choices have to be made when integrating COTS products to create a COTS-solution system?

What design choices have to be made when integrating COTS products to create a COTS-solution system?

Ans: To develop systems using COTS products, you have to make a number of design choices:

1. Which COTS products offer the most appropriate functionality? Typically, there will be several COTS products available, which can be combined in different ways. If you don’t already have experience with a COTS product, it can be difficult to decide which product is the most suitable.

2. How will data be exchanged? Different products normally use unique data structures and formats. You have to write adaptors that convert from one representation to another. These adaptors are run-time systems that operate alongside the COTS products.

3. What features of a product will actually be used? COTS products may include more functionality than you need and functionality may be duplicated across different products. You have to decide which features in what product are most appropriate for your requirements. If possible, you should also deny access to unused functionality because this can interfere with normal system operation. The failure of the first flight of the Ariane 5 rocket was a consequence of a failure in an inertial navigation system that was reused from the Ariane 4 system. However, the functionality that failed was not actually

required in Ariane 5.