Citation
Thomas Huining Feng, Edward A. Lee. "Model Transformation for Systematic Development of Actor Models". Talk or presentation, 21, February, 2008; Poster presented at the 2008 Berkeley EECS Annual Research Symposium.

Abstract
The model transformation facility provides a framework for the analysis and transformation of actor models using model transformation techniques.

The design of large-scale models poses a number of challenges. As the size of the models increases to thousands of actors or hundreds of thousands of actors, analysis and consistent modification on the models become extremely hard. Furthermore, to maximize component reuse, a systematic approach is needed for the specification and maintenance of common patterns in the models and the transformation of those patterns.

The model transformation framework to be developed in this project aims to support the flexible specification of patterns and replacements by means of rules in graph grammar. An intuitive graphical user interface will be built. For novice users, a set of common transformations will be included in a library to facilitate their common tasks.

The transformations are models in their own right. They can be embedded in larger models hierarchically. Heterogeneous models of computation can be used to control the application of individual "atomic" transformations. This makes it easy to create sophisticated transformations by composing simple ones in a manageable and disciplined way. The sophisticated transformations will also take advantage of the concurrency inherent in those models of computation. Model transformation can be applied as an optimization of modal models. These are hierarchical state machines with refinements in their states, which are sub-models to be executed when those states are active. The current implementation includes the complete description of each refinement in the model description, even though refinements of the states in a state machine tend to have large commonality. With the transformation technique, only one refinement needs to be stored completely. The others are obtained by transformations performed on the stored refinement. This eliminates redundancy and eases the job of modifying multiple refinements consistently.

Other applications of the model transformation technique include recognizing common design patterns in the models in a static analysis, replacing exiting design patterns with more efficient ones, and reusing design patterns by incorporating them into new models.

Electronic downloads

• BEARS_tfeng_2008.ppt · application/vnd.ms-powerpoint · 2488 kbytes

• HTML

  Thomas Huining Feng, Edward A. Lee. <a
  href="http://chess.eecs.berkeley.edu/pubs/394.html"><i>Model
  Transformation for Systematic Development of Actor
  Models</i></a>, Talk or presentation,  21,
  February, 2008; Poster presented at the 2008 <a
  href="http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/bears/"
  >Berkeley EECS Annual Research Symposium</a>.

• Plain text

  Thomas Huining Feng, Edward A. Lee. "Model
  Transformation for Systematic Development of Actor
  Models". Talk or presentation,  21, February, 2008;
  Poster presented at the 2008 <a
  href="http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/bears/"
  >Berkeley EECS Annual Research Symposium</a>.

• BibTeX

  @presentation{FengLee08_ModelTransformationForSystematicDevelopmentOfActorModels,
      author = {Thomas Huining Feng and Edward A. Lee},
      title = {Model Transformation for Systematic Development of
                Actor Models},
      day = {21},
      month = {February},
      year = {2008},
      note = {Poster presented at the 2008 <a
                href="http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/bears/"
                >Berkeley EECS Annual Research Symposium</a>.},
      abstract = {The model transformation facility provides a
                framework for the analysis and transformation of
                actor models using model transformation
                techniques. <p> The design of large-scale models
                poses a number of challenges. As the size of the
                models increases to thousands of actors or
                hundreds of thousands of actors, analysis and
                consistent modification on the models become
                extremely hard. Furthermore, to maximize component
                reuse, a systematic approach is needed for the
                specification and maintenance of common patterns
                in the models and the transformation of those
                patterns. <p> The model transformation framework
                to be developed in this project aims to support
                the flexible specification of patterns and
                replacements by means of rules in graph grammar.
                An intuitive graphical user interface will be
                built. For novice users, a set of common
                transformations will be included in a library to
                facilitate their common tasks. <p> The
                transformations are models in their own right.
                They can be embedded in larger models
                hierarchically. Heterogeneous models of
                computation can be used to control the application
                of individual "atomic" transformations. This makes
                it easy to create sophisticated transformations by
                composing simple ones in a manageable and
                disciplined way. The sophisticated transformations
                will also take advantage of the concurrency
                inherent in those models of computation. Model
                transformation can be applied as an optimization
                of modal models. These are hierarchical state
                machines with refinements in their states, which
                are sub-models to be executed when those states
                are active. The current implementation includes
                the complete description of each refinement in the
                model description, even though refinements of the
                states in a state machine tend to have large
                commonality. With the transformation technique,
                only one refinement needs to be stored completely.
                The others are obtained by transformations
                performed on the stored refinement. This
                eliminates redundancy and eases the job of
                modifying multiple refinements consistently. <p>
                Other applications of the model transformation
                technique include recognizing common design
                patterns in the models in a static analysis,
                replacing exiting design patterns with more
                efficient ones, and reusing design patterns by
                incorporating them into new models.},
      URL = {http://chess.eecs.berkeley.edu/pubs/394.html}
  }
  

Posted by Thomas Huining Feng on 25 Feb 2008.
Groups: ptolemy
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