A SEMANTIC ANCHORING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MODEL-INTEGRATED COMPUTING By Kai Chen Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Computer Science August, 2006 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Janos Sztipanovits Stephen R. Schach Gabor Karsai Gautam Biswas Sherif Abdelwahed Benoit Dawant 献给我的父母和我的妻子 To my parents & To my beloved wife, Yongjie ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am greatly appreciative and thankful to my advisor, Dr. Janos Sztipanovits, for his scientific vision, detailed guidance, great patience and tremendous encouragement throughout these years. Dr. Sztipanovits has guided me through my transition from an incoming graduate student to an outgoing researcher. I also thank Dr. Stephen R. Schach, Dr. Gabor Karsai, Dr. Gautam Biswas, Dr. Sherif Abdelwahed and Dr. Benoit Dawant for serving on my dissertation committee. I appreciate their guidance and advice. Dr. Schach, who advised me while I was in the Master’s program, introduced me to the Software Engineering research area, which has direct impact on my thesis. I would also like to thank the members of the Institute for Software Integrated Systems, especially Dr. Sandeep Neema, Dr. John Koo, Dr. Douglas Schmidt, Dr. Aniruddha Gokhale, Ethan Jackson, Matthew Emerson, Graham Hemingway, Gabor Madl, Andrew Dixon, Brian Williams and Christopher Buskirk. Our many discussions stimulated my research. Most importantly, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my loving family. I am indebted to my mom and dad for their support, encouragement, and belief in me. Special thanks to my lovely wife, Yongjie, who makes all my work worthwhile. This work is dedicated to them. Finally, thanks for the support and sponsorship given by the National Science Foundation through the Information Technology Research project, under contract number CCR-0225610. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................ iii LIST OF TABLES....................................................................................................... vii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................xi Chapter I. INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................1 II. BACKGROUND ................................................................................................7 Model-Driven Software Engineering...........................................................7 Model-Driven Architecture....................................................................8 Model-Integrated Computing...............................................................15 Model-Driven Software Development.................................................26 Modeling Languages..................................................................................34 The Unified Modeling Language.........................................................35 Hybrid System Interchange Format.....................................................39 Domain-Specific Modeling Language.................................................40 Formal Methods.........................................................................................42 Semantic Specification Methods..........................................................42 Formal Specification Languages..........................................................44 Abstract State Machine........................................................................46 III. A SEMANTIC ANCHORING INFRASTRUCTURE.....................................57 Formal DSML Specification......................................................................57 Semantic Anchoring Methodology............................................................59 Semantic Anchoring Tool Suite.................................................................61 Abstract Syntax Modeling ...................................................................62 Set-Valued Structural Semantics for Metamodels...............................63 A Formal Framework for Specifying Semantic Units .........................65 A Formal Framework for Model Transformation................................67 The Abstract State Machine Language................................................69 IV. SEMANTIC ANCHORING CASE STUDY....................................................74 iv The FSM domain in Ptolemy.....................................................................74 The Basic FSM ....................................................................................75 The Hierarchical FSM..........................................................................76 The Syntax Definition for FML.................................................................78 The Semantic Unit Specification for FML ................................................79 AsmL Abstract Data Model for FML ..................................................80 Behavioral Semantics for FML............................................................83 Semantic Anchoring Specification ......................................................87 V. A SEMANTIC UNIT FOR TIMED AUTOMATA BASED MODELING LANGUAGES..............................................................95 Semantic Units...........................................................................................95 Timed Automata ........................................................................................97 Timed Bϋchi Automata........................................................................98 Timed Safety Automata .......................................................................98 Timed Automata Semantic Unit ................................................................97 Overview of TASU...........................................................................100 Abstract Data Model.........................................................................105 Operational Semantics ......................................................................109 TASU Metamodel Specification.......................................................116 Semantic Anchoring to TASU................................................................120 Semantic Anchoring for the UPPAAL Language...............................121 Semantic Anchoring for the IF Language.........................................127 VI. SEMANTIC UNIT COMPOSITION .............................................................137 Compositional Specification of Behavioral Semantics ...........................137 SEFSM Overview ....................................................................................140 Primary Semantic Units Used .................................................................146 Finite State Machine Semantic Unit ..................................................146 Synchronous Dataflow Semantic Unit...............................................149 Compositional Semantics Specification for SEFSM Components..........153 Structural Composition ......................................................................153 Behavioral Composition ....................................................................156 Compositional Semantics Specification for SEFSM Systems.................160 Structural Composition ......................................................................160 Behavioral Composition ....................................................................162 VII. RESULTS, CONCLUTIONS AND FUTURE WORK..................................165 Results......................................................................................................165 Precision of the Semantics Specification...........................................165 Validation Support.............................................................................167 Satisfaction of the EFSM Designers..................................................167 Efficiency of the Compositional Semantic Specification Approach 167 v Conclusion ...............................................................................................169 Future Work.............................................................................................171 REFERENCES ...........................................................................................................173 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 7-1. Comparison between the CSSA and the traditional approach..........................168 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 2-1. Model transformation .........................................................................................12 2-2. Overview of the MIC architecture......................................................................16 2-3. The metaprogrammable MIC tool suite..............................................................18 2-4. The GME architecture ........................................................................................19 2-5. The GReAT architecture ....................................................................................21 2-6. The DESERT design flow ..................................................................................22 2-7. The UDM framework architecture .....................................................................24 2-8. The OTIF architecture ........................................................................................26