A multi-scale modeling approach for systems of systems architectures

Abstract

Modeling correct software-intensive Systems of Systems architectures is a challenging research direction that can be mastered by providing appropriate modeling abstractions. For this purpose, we provide an iterative modeling solution for a multi-scale description of software architectures. We provide a visual notation extending the graphical UML notations to represent structural as well as behavioral features of software architectures. We define a step-wise iterative process from a coarse-grain to a fine-grain description. The intermediate iterations provide a description with a given abstraction that allow the validation to be conducted significantly while remaining tractable w.r.t. complexity. The iterative process involves both system-independent structural features ensuring the model correctness, and system-specific features related to the expected behavior of the modeled domain. We implement the resulting models describing structural and behavioral properties using the Eclipse platform. To experiment our approach, we deal with an SoS dedicated to the Emergency Response and Crisis Management System(ERCMS).