The Lost Art of Abstraction.

System abstractions such as virtual memory simplify the construction of software by hiding details of the underlying system and by providing higher-level functionality on which to build. While the value of building systems as layers or hierarchies of abstractions has long been known, the application of this principle has been uneven when it comes to using it as the basis for architecting dependable distributed systems. This paper gives an overview of issues that arise when using abstractions in this area and proposes some approaches to addressing these issues. The latter include the use of translucent abstractions that expose some of the internal workings of the abstraction implementation, customizable abstractions that allow attributes to be matched to the application requirements and execution scenario, and an intrusion-stop process abstraction that potentially provides a basis for architecting survivable systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]