DOI: 10.7763/IJCTE.2010.V2.121
A Meta-Model Based Approach for Definition of a Multi-Formalism Modeling Framework
Abstract—Many software tools and environments are developed for modeling discrete-event systems. Although, most of the existing tool are proposed for modeling with one or a few modeling languages. In this paper, we propose a meta-modeling approach for definition of a multi-formalism modeling framework for Petri nets and related formal modeling languages. The proposed framework and the related software tool facilitate the inclusion of formalisms in the framework in a unified manner. The proposed meta-modeling structure is designed in four layers such that the most abstract layer as the meta-formalism and the least abstract layer as the concrete model. The basic concepts of the meta-modeling structure and some examples of formalisms are presented based on the proposed structure. We explain the techniques and the architecture of the implemented tool based on the proposed meta-modeling structure for the framework.
Index Terms—Modeling, meta-modeling, modeling language, formalism, tool, discrete-event systems.
Hamid Mohammad Gholizadeh was with School of Computer Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran (corresponding author: phone: +98-21-77240540-50 (ext. 3325); fax: +98-21-7724046; e-mail: hgholizadeh@comp.iust.ac.ir).
Mohammad Abdollahi Azgomi is with School of Computer Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran. (e-mail: azgomi@iust.ac.ir).