Modelling evolution of communication platforms and scenarios based on transformations of high-level nets and processes

Abstract

Algebraic High-Level (AHL) nets are a well-known modelling technique based on Petri nets with algebraic data types, which allows to model the communication structure and the data flow within one modelling framework. Transformations of AHL-nets–inspired by the theory of graph transformations–allow in addition to modify the communication structure. Moreover, high-level processes of AHL-nets capture the concurrent semantics of AHL-nets in an adequate way. Altogether, we obtain a powerful integrated formal specification technique to model and analyse all kinds of communication based systems, especially different kinds of communication platforms.In this paper, we show how to model the evolution of communication platforms and scenarios based on transformations of algebraic high-level nets and processes. All constructions and results are illustrated by a small case study showing the evolution of Apache Wave platforms and scenarios. The evolution of platforms is modelled by the transformation of AHL-nets and that of scenarios by the transformation of AHL-net processes. Two new results for transformation of AHL-net processes are presented, motivated by the evolution of communication platforms and scenarios.