Reasoning about conceptual interoperability of simulations using meta-level graph relations

Issue title: Ontology Driven Interoperability for Agile Applications using Information Systems: Requirements and Applications for Agent Mediated Decision Support

Guest editors: Andreas Tolk

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Yilmaz, Levent

Affiliations: The Auburn Modeling and Simulation Laboratory of the M&SNet, Computer Science and Software Engineering, 107 Dunstan Hall, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA. Tel.: +1 334 844 6343; Fax: +1 334 844 6329; E-mail: yilmaz@auburn.edu

Abstract: Engineering of large and complex simulation systems is becoming more reliant on the reuse of existing simulation models. While existing technical standards facilitate syntactic and technical interoperability among disparate simulation models, there is still lack of formal methods that enable sound reasoning about the conceptual congruity of models that are selected for composition. This paper suggests a graph-theoretic approach to measure the extent of conceptual congruity of models within a new context. The premise of the approach is based on having contextualized models that provide introspective access to their metamodels. A metamodel associated with a reusable model entails a conceptualization of the domain in which it is originally designed to be situated in. The metamodels are used to instantiate a metagraph and graph distance metrics are used to measure the alignment of metamodels in the context of the new application domain. The paper also presents a strategy for packaging and distributing such metamodels with implemented models to facilitate practical application of the proposed method.

Keywords: Interoperability, composability, conceptual interoperability, graph theory, formal methods

DOI: 10.3233/IDT-2008-2104

Journal: Intelligent Decision Technologies, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 33-51, 2008