IQCPSoS: A Model-Based Approach for Modeling and Analyzing Information Quality Requirements for Cyber-Physical System-of-Systems

Abstract

A Cyber-Physical System-of-Systems (CPSoS) can be defined as a System-of-Systems (SoS), where its component systems are Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) that have been networked together for achieving a certain higher goal. Therefore, a key viability of any CPSoS is the integration of its CPSs to function as a single integrated system to support a common mission. Although such integration can be achieved relying on the exchange of information among CPSs, only few works have highlighted the importance of considering the quality of such information. Without considering Information Quality (IQ) requirements during the design of CPSoS, CPSs will be vulnerable to faults arising from depending on inaccurate, incomplete, inconsistent, and/or outdated information, which may influence the overall dependability, reliability, and performance of the CPSoS. This paper proposes a model-based approach that offers a novel UML profile, named IQCPSoS (Information Quality for Cyber-Physical System-of-Systems), which contains various stereotypes and tagged values for modeling and analyzing IQ requirements for CPSoS. The profile also proposes a set of constraints expressed in the Object Constraint Language (OCL) to be used for the verification of such models. We evaluate our approach by developing a prototype implementation and test its applicability, usability, and validity for modeling and analyzing IQ requirements for a realistic scenario concerning a Tram system.