Unified Modeling Language Sequence Diagrams Research Articles

A formal approach to specify and verify Internet of Things architecture

The Internet of Things (IoT) aims to interconnect the physical world with the digital world, presenting complex challenges that require accurate models to ensure implementation accuracy and minimize errors. In this paper, we propose a general approach for modeling, specifying, and verifying Internet of Things architectures using the Unified Modeling Language (UML), the Event-B formal method, and the Rodin platform. We propose a model-to-text transformation that generates semi-automatic formal specifications from UML component diagrams profiled with IoT concepts and UML sequence diagrams. The resulting Event-B code allows for formal verification of system properties by employing the powerful model checker and animator tools within the Rodin platform. Additionally, we evaluate the effectiveness of various IoT patterns within our approach. Our results demonstrate the benefits of employing IoT patterns, including cost reduction related to software development. The proposed approach contributes to the development of reliable and efficient IoT systems by ensuring valid models and verifying system properties.

Development of Architecture for Connecting a System Module for People with Disabilities

Introduction. To develop new system modules of software to help employees with disabilities, it is required to work out an architectural solution for the interaction of all parts of the system. As a result of the analysis and design, it is necessary to obtain a software architecture that must meet a number of standard requirements. First of all, it should be safe. To do this, you should take into account the error logging system, event auditing, the possibility of disabling the functionality immediately after putting it into commercial operation, internal mechanisms for validating client input requests and server responses. This study is aimed at the development of basic system maintenance options, the analysis of exception cases under interacting with the user for further evaluation of the architecture efficiency, and the direct project development. Materials and Methods. The architectural decision was carried out using the Unified Modeling Language (UML), which helps to build visual images of the life cycle and interaction of all components of the system. The syntax of the UML deployment diagram was used to study the interaction of the main modules of the future system, and the syntax of the UML sequence diagram was used to process the lifecycle. A use case diagram was also applied to describe the main use cases. To study the interaction of the main modules of the future system, the UML deployment diagram syntax was used. For life cycle processing, the UML sequence diagram syntax was applied. In addition, a use case diagram was applied to describe the base use cases. Results. An architecture that has a scheme for the interaction of individual modules and systems, as well as options for using the software package for the future implementation of the software product, has been developed. The proposed system architecture meets the requirements of security, reliability (fault tolerance), and performance. The authors have fixed the functional requirements of the system of assistance to employees of enterprises with hearing problems for the possibility of their employment and work on the telecommunication Internet. Basic variations of system maintenance have been developed. Discussion and Conclusions. Building a competent architecture provides taking into account cases that go beyond the normal use of the system, and applying a fuzzy model to determine the system efficiency. Further in-depth description of deployment and operation options will enable to implement an efficient and productive system.

Characterizing Student Proficiency in Software Modeling in Terms of Functions, Structures, and Behaviors

Software modeling is an integral practice for software engineers, especially as the complexity of software solutions increases. Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the industry standard for software modeling. however, it is often used incorrectly and misunderstood by novice software designers. This study is centered around understanding patterns of student proficiency of abstraction and systems thinking within a software modeling context. The participants of this study (n = 97) belonged to a systems analysis and design course that is primarily taken by second-year university students. The exam solutions to a case study from the course were evaluated for modeling proficiency. As evidence of proficiency in abstract thinking and systems thinking, we evaluated UML activity diagrams, class diagrams, and sequence diagrams and the alignment between these representations in terms of functions, structures, and behaviors. The results suggest students being proficient in modeling the functional aspects of an information system while facing some difficulty in capturing the structural and behavioral aspects of an information system. Clustering analysis revealed two groups within the sample, with one group displaying a significantly higher abstraction and systems thinking ability. Statistically significant correlations were also found between student proficiency of abstraction and their modeling proficiency in terms of functions, structures, and behaviors.

Using i* and UML for Blockchain Oriented Software Engineering: Strengths,Weaknesses, Lacks and Complementarity

New blockchain-based projects do appear every day. The technology has indeed been popularized by cryptocurrencies but is now gaining interest in various domains and new types of applications are evaluated constantly. Understanding the impact of blockchain adoption on the organization and the internals of blockchain-related behavior nevertheless remains a challenge for managers but also for IT professionals. This article studies how two existing organizational and software modeling languages can be fit to document a blockchain development project in Supply Chain Management (SCM) at its earliest stages. These two frameworks are i* on the one side and the Unified Modeling Language (UML) use case and sequence diagrams on the other side. The real life project used as a case study in this application is ‘Farm-to-Fork’ where a blockchain solution for the Supply Chain (SC) of farm animals is developed. The application of the frameworks is intended to identify their strengths and weaknesses. An extension of i* is proposed to deal with blockchain privacy issues as well as laws and norms. We finally point to the complementarity of i* and UML use case and sequence diagrams in a Blockchain-Oriented Software Engineering (BOSE) context. The i* framework indeed supports early requirements to understand the impact of the project on stakeholders while UML use case and sequence diagrams support the late requirements and the design by depicting the use of blockchain and some of its behavioral mechanisms.

Model-based test case generation from UML sequence diagrams using extended finite state machines

The effectiveness of model-based testing (MBT) is mainly due to its potential for automation. If the model is formal and machine-readable, test cases can be derived automatically. One of the most used formal modeling techniques is the interpretation of a system as an extended finite state machine (EFSM). However, formal models are not a common practice in the industry. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has become the de facto standard for software modeling. Nevertheless, due to the lack of formal semantics, its diagrams can be given ambiguous interpretations and are not suitable for testing automation. This article introduces a systematic procedure for the generation of tests from UML models that uses concepts of model-driven engineering (MDE) for formalizing UML sequence diagrams into extended finite state machines and providing a precise semantics for them. It also applies ModelJUnit and JUnit libraries for an automatic generation of test cases. A case study was conducted in a real software towards the evaluation of its applicability.

Quantitative Timing Analysis for Cyber-Physical Systems Using Uncertainty-Aware Scenario-Based Specifications

Due to the merits of intuitive and visual modeling of design requirements, unified modeling language (UML) sequence diagrams are widely used as scenario-based specifications in the design of cyber-physical systems (CPSs). However, when more and more CPS products are deployed within an uncertain environment, existing sequence diagram analysis approaches cannot be used to accurately capture and quantify their timing behaviors at an early design stage. To address this problem, this article extends UML sequence diagrams to allow the modeling of stochastic system inputs, message processing time, and network delays, which strongly affect the system timing behaviors. We develop a statistical model checking-based framework that can automatically convert stochastic sequence diagrams into networks of priced timed automata to enable the quantitative analysis under various performance queries. The experimental results of two industrial designs in the railway field demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.

Mapping UML Sequence Diagram into the Web Ontology Language OWL

In this paper, we propose a new mapping technique from the OMG’s UML modeling language into the Web Ontology Language (OWL) to serve the Semantic Web. UML (Unified Modeling Language) is widely accepted and used as a standardized modeling language in Object-Oriented Analysis (OOA) and Design (OOD) approach by domain experts to model real-world objects in software development. On the other hand, the conceptualization, which is represented in OWL, is designed to process the content of information rather than just present the information. Therefore, the matter of migrating UML to OWL is becoming an energetic research domain. OWL (Web Ontology Language) is a Semantic Web language designed for defining ontologies on the Web. An ontology is a formal specification naming and definition of shared data. This technique describes how to map UML Models into OWL and allows us to keep semantic of UML sequence diagrams such as messages, the sequence of messages, guard invariant, etc. to make data of UML sequence diagrams machine-readable.

Program comprehension through reverse‐engineered sequence diagrams: A systematic review

AbstractReverse engineering of sequence diagrams refers to the process of extracting meaningful information about the behavior of software systems in the form of appropriately generated sequence diagrams. This process has become a practical method for retrieving the behavior of software systems, primarily those with inadequate documentation. Various approaches have been proposed in the literature to produce from a given system a series of interactions that can be used for different purposes. The reason for such diversity of approaches is the need to offer sequence diagrams that can cater for the users' specific goals and needs, which can vary widely depending on the users' perception and understandability of visual representations and the target application domains. In this paper, we systematically review existing techniques in this context while focusing on their distinct purposes and potentials of providing more understandable sequence diagrams. In addition, a qualitative evaluation of such techniques is conducted to expose their adequacy and applicability for effective program comprehension. Finally, we list a set of possible extensions to the unified modeling language sequence diagram standard that we anticipate will enhance its versatility and understandability of program control flow, followed by a number of concluding remarks.

Using unified modelling language to model the publish/subscribe paradigm in the context of timed Web services with distributed resources

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we present a unified modelling language (UML) framework to model timed Web services with distributed resources. We provide a graphical model of timed Web services that integrates the publish/subscribe paradigm in the context of distributed resources, with the goal that users have a formal framework to design this kind of systems. A formalization is then provided by using UML sequence diagrams with Combined Fragments (CFs) to represent the interactions between the roles involved and Web Services Resource Framework as a standard for the management of distributed resources. The formalization is based on a two-level process algebra. At the top level we have the CF description, and at the bottom the interactions inside them. An operational semantics is then defined for this model, and two case studies are presented to illustrate the applicability of this formalism.

Botnet Communication Patterns

Malicious botnets have become a common threat and pervade large parts of the Internet today. Existing surveys and taxonomies focus on botnet topologies, command and control protocols, and botnet objectives. Building on these research results, network-based detection techniques have been proposed that are capable of detecting known botnets. Methods for botnet establishment and operation have evolved significantly over the past decade resulting in the need for detection methods that are capable of detecting new, previously unknown types of botnets. In this paper we present an in-depth analysis of all network communication aspects in botnet establishment and operation. We examine botnet topology, protocols, and analyze a large set of very different and highly sophisticated existing botnets from a network communication perspective. Based on our analysis, we introduce a novel taxonomy of generalized communication patterns for botnet communication using standardized unified modeling language sequence diagrams. We furthermore examine data exchange options and investigate the influence of encryption and hiding techniques. Our generalized communication patterns provide a useful basis for the development of sophisticated network-based botnet detection mechanisms and can offer a key component for building protocol- and topology-independent network-based detectors.

Scenario-Based Modeling of the On-Board of a Satellite-Based Train Control System With Colored Petri Nets

For the goal of model-based system design and development, this paper exploits the formalism of colored Petri nets (CPNs) to model the on-board subsystem of a satellite-based train control system on the basis of scenarios. The Unified Modeling Language sequence diagrams, which are easily understood by customers, requirement engineers, and software developers, are used to represent scenarios as specification models. A scenario is a partial description of the system behavior, describing how users, system components, and the environment interact. Thus, scenarios need to be synthesized to obtain an overall system behavior. A large number of works have investigated scenario synthesis providing approaches or algorithms. These synthesis approaches and algorithms result in either Petri net models that are mainly suitable for scenario validation or other forms of behavior models (e.g., labeled transition systems and statecharts) that may be regarded as design models. Petri nets are well known for describing distributed and concurrent systems. Furthermore, numerous techniques, e.g., simulation, testing, state-space-based techniques, structural methods, and model checking, are currently available for analyzing PN models. Therefore, design models, which integrate all scenarios into a coherent whole suitable for further detailed design, in the form of Petri nets are promising. To this end, we present a top-down approach to establish hierarchical CPNs in accordance with specified scenarios (i.e., sequence diagrams). This approach makes use of explicitly labeling component states in the sequence diagrams to correlate scenarios. In addition, the techniques of state-space analysis and model-based testing are employed to verify the correctness and consistency of the CPN model with respect to standard and system-specific properties. The verification results show that our approach is desirable.

<italic>In-Situ</italic> Requirements Monitoring of Embedded Systems

We present a requirements-driven methodology enabling efficient runtime monitoring of embedded systems. The proposed approach extracts a runtime monitoring graph from system requirements specified using unified modeling language sequence diagrams with timing annotations. Nonintrusive, in-situ, on-chip hardware dynamically monitors the system execution, matches the specified requirements, and provides detailed information that can be analyzed in the event of a system failure. We present a case study using an autonomous vehicle subsystem demonstrating that the approach can achieve 100% detection rate of common failure types, including timing, dependency, synchronization, and sensor failures. We further analyze the relationship between coverage of system events, detection rates, and hardware requirements.

A framework for an integrated unified modeling language

The unified modeling language (UML) is one of the most commonly used modeling languages in the software industry. It simplifies the complex process of design by providing a set of graphical notations, which helps express the objectoriented analysis and design of software projects. Although UML is applicable to different types of systems, domains, methods, and processes, it cannot express certain problem domain needs. Therefore, many extensions to UML have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a framework for integrating the UML extensions and then use the framework to propose an integrated unified modeling language-graphical (iUML-g) form. iUML-g integrates the existing UML extensions into one integrated form. This includes an integrated diagram for UML class, sequence, and use case diagrams. The proposed approach is evaluated using a case study. The proposed iUML-g is capable of modeling systems that use different domains.

Generating UML Sequence Diagrams from Use Case Maps: A Model Transformation Approach

Use case map (UCM) is a modeling language designed to bridge the gap between requirements and high-level design artifacts. UCM graphical models describe functional requirements as scenarios using a structure of components. UCM specifies multiple scenarios abstractly in a single integrated view that facilitates understanding of the system-to-be and the early detection of inconsistent scenarios. However, once requirements have been expressed as scenarios, unified modeling language (UML) sequence diagrams are suitable for developing and presenting the details of interactions and help in the transition to a more formal level of refinement. Typically, system analysts are responsible for this transition, and they usually perform it manually, which makes subsequent design models prone to mistakes. As a result, system analysts may design an application that does not accurately realize the behavior specified in UCMs. There is therefore a need to develop a technique to transform UCM models to UML design artifacts. UML sequence diagrams are one of the most popular UML artifacts for dynamic modeling. In this paper, we present a model transformation approach from UCM notation to a UML sequence diagram to facilitate the transition from requirements to high-level design artifacts. We also present an application of the proposed model transformation to an elevator control system.

CBTC System Dynamic Data Security Verification Method

Communication based train control system as a train control system is designed to ensure driving safety, the system description and system function of the real environment is driven by different types of data. Data security is an important component part of CBTC system security, the dynamic data as interactive data within the system is more important influence on system safety, it is necessary to put forward the formal modeling for dynamic data security verification. This paper puts forward a kind of dynamic data security verification method for train control system based on UPPAAL. The unified modeling language (UML) is adopted to train control scene modeling analysis, through model transformation method to convert the UML sequence diagram to timed automata model, using UPPAAL validation tool for train control scenario simulation analysis, through dynamic data to meet security constraint conditions shows that the dynamic data security.

The Observer Pattern Research Based on rCOS

Design patterns is a good method to solve software crisis and realize the software reuse. It is usually combined with the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to establish the system framework. And Observer pattern is high frequently used in actual modeling. So this paper presents formalization of the Observer pattern based on refinement Calculus of Object Systems (rCOS), this research describes formal semantics of the patterns UML class diagram and sequence diagram and guarantee the characteristics and properties of the pattern at the same time in order to use system model accurately which involved Observer pattern.

An evaluation of the software architecture efficiency using the Clichés and behavioral diagrams pertaining to the unified modeling language

Article history: Received October 15, 2014 Accepted January 24, 2014 Available online February 4 2014 The software architecture plays essential role for the development of the complicated software systems and it is important to evaluate the software architecture efficiency. One way to evaluate the software architecture is to create an executable model from the architecture. Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagrams are used to describe the software architecture. UML has made it easy to use and to evaluate the necessary requirements at the software architecture level. It creates an executable model from these diagrams; yet, since the UML is a standard semi-formal language for describing the software architecture, evaluating the software architecture is not directly possible through it. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the software architecture, one needs to turn the actual model into the formal model. In this study, first we describe the architecture using the UML. Then, some properties of the software architecture are mentioned using the UML sequence diagram, deployment diagram, use case diagram, and component diagram. The necessary information associated with the qualitative characteristic of efficiency will be margined as cliches and labels to these diagrams. The independent and dependent components will be extracted from the component diagram. Finally, the resulted semi-formal model will be mapped into a formal model based on the colored Petri net and finally the evaluation will take place. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic code generation from unified modelling language sequence diagrams

Unified modelling language (UML) is a visual modelling language, which has gained popularity among software practitioners. In a model-driven software development environment, the existing UML tools mainly support automatic generation of structural code from UML class diagrams. However, the code generation from UML diagrams such as statechart, activity, collaboration and sequence diagrams (SDs) are not supported by most UML tools and also have scarcely been reported in the literatures. This work proposes an approach to automatic generation of code from UML 2.x SDs of use cases. From the XML metadata interchange (XMI) representation of an SD of a use case, the authors construct a graph model called sequence integration graph (SIG). The SIG encapsulates information related to messages, control flow and method scope of interactions. These information are then used to generate code. The proposed approach has been tested using a number of real-life application systems and the results substantiate the efficacy of the approach to synthesise the code for controller classes. The authors observe that approximately 48% of the total lines of code within controller class methods can be generated with the proposed approach. The proposed approach can be easily extended to other behavioural UML models such as interaction-overview diagrams, communication diagrams and activity diagrams.

UML Modeling of Generic Agent Database Approach under Distributed Computing Environment

Due to presence of high speed bandwidth network called as National Knowledge Network (NKN) environment, the communication between the two computer systems by message passing and data transmission techniques have improved significantly. The existence of heterogeneous network environment has different configuration supporting network. In such type of networks, the process execution depends upon several factors related with the hardware like cpu speed, clock rate, memory size, etc. and software events like execution scenario of processes based on software programming and database approach results in a best optimum performance of the network. One of such kind of approach has been proposed by the authors and a model has been designed for the general process execution concept through distributed database agent supported in distributed computing environment to obtain optimum process execution. This approach has been designed by considering two phases; one phase based on the client node and other is based on controller system. The model has been created by the use of well known Unified Modeling Language (UML) and UML class, sequence and activity diagrams are designed. General Terms Generic System, Distributed Approach

Transformation of UML Class Diagram to UML Sequence Diagram

For object-oriented software development, The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has become an industrial standard. There are different models which have been described under UML notation. Use case model can represent the functional view of the system, UML class model can represent static view of the system, activity or sequence diagram can represent the dynamic view of the system. If we focus on field of UML class diagram & UML activity diagrams then a lots of research still is required. In this paper we describe a transformation process which can be used to transform the UML class diagram to UML sequence diagram. Transformation process is quite helpful so that we can easy obtain the UML sequence diagram from UML class diagram. General Terms UML Class diagram, UML Sequence diagram