Process abstraction and its applications in transportation systems

Abstract

In system architecting, the models mapping directly and rigidly from the complex and ever changing processes in real world usually lack enough extensibility and flexibility. So it is necessary to describe and model a complex system on a higher level of abstraction. And then some generic process patterns which reflect important behaviors and properties in many systems can be used. In this paper we propose a method of process abstraction and two important patterns, barrier and lease in transportation system architecting. We analyze the hierarchies and primitive elements of process abstraction on the framework of Algebra of Systems (AoS). Furthermore, we explain the essential mechanisms and functions of barrier and lease in transportation system. By implementing the approach of process abstraction as well as the core concepts of barrier and lease, we construct a general transportation system model and a specialized system of airline rescheduling. These applications further illustrate the extensibility and flexibility of the proposed method in system architecting.