Semantic Foundations for Composition and Interoperation of Open Systems

本研究的目的是为开放系统中异类组件的语义组合和互操作提供一个语义基础。组合和互操作发生在多个级别(需求、规范、代码、可执行文件)和多个维度(功能、可靠性、安全性、可用性)。必须保持各层次和各维度之间的关系。现有的关于组合和互操作的研究主要集中在句法结构上。为了提供安全、可靠和有意义的组合，开发语义基础是至关重要的。复杂系统的语义结构应该为确定在给定条件下哪些部件是可互换的，并预测变化的影响提供坚实的基础：总体上的组件和系统需求对部件需求的影响。在广泛的应用中，这种互操作的语义基础可能是有价值的。它在组合来自不同领域的组件的应用中尤其重要，例如：数据库、电子表格、知识库、多媒体、移动代理、控制理论或基于事件的模拟。使用一般逻辑理论中的元学方法，以及相关的形式主义中和跨形式主义的映射技术，实现了与形式主义无关的系统组成语义。这支持系统描述和形式化级别的多维性。利用开放机械化推理系统(OMRS)理论中的技术以及对角色系统的形式语义的研究，对互操作方面进行了研究。反思性技术，特别是反思性逻辑和多模型系统被广泛使用。这一研究有望为软件系统的组合、互操作和动态演化提供一种新的技术。它寻求在多个层次和多个维度上处理互操作性：组件、语言、规范、形式主义/逻辑和工具。这提供了在系统的不同形式化之间以严格的数学方式移动的能力，并以严格集成的方式使用支持这些形式化的不同工具。该研究基于两个关键技术思想：模块演算(用于集成)和开放多模型系统(用于互操作)。模演算是形式主义独立的，并打算具有强大的新运算，如泛化。开放的多模型系统将独立互操作部分的多维方面形式化。***

The objective of this research is to develop a semantic foundation for semantic composition and interoperation of heterogeneous components of open systems. Composition and interoperation occur at many levels (requirements, specification, code, executables) and along multiple dimensions (functionality, reliability, security, availability). Relations among the various levels and dimensions must be preserved. Existing work on composition and interoperation has largely focused on syntactic structure. It is essential to develop a semantic basis in order to provide for safe, secure, and meaningful combinations. Semantic structuring of complex systems should provide a firm basis for determining what parts are interchangeable under given conditions, and to predict effects of changes: of components on the whole, and of system requirements on requirements for the parts. There is a wide range of applications where such a semantic foundation for interoperation can be of value. It is especially important in applications that combine components from diverse domains such as: data bases, spread sheets, knowledge bases, multi-media, mobile-agents, control theory, or event-based simulations. Metalogical methods from the theory of general logics, and associated techniques of mappings in and across formalisms, are used to achieve formalism-independent semantics for system composition. This supports the multi-dimensionality of a system's levels of description and formalization. Techniques from the theory of Open Mechanized Reasoning Systems (OMRS) as well as work on the formal semantics of actor systems are used to study interoperation aspects. Reflective techniques, particularly reflective logics and multi-model systems are employed extensively. This research is expected to lead to a new technology for composition, interoperation and dynamic evolution of software systems. It seeks to treat interoperability at many levels and along many dimensions: components, languages, speci fications, formalisms/logics, and tools. This provides the capacity to move in a mathematically rigorous way across the different formalizations of a system, and to use the different tools supporting these formalizations in a rigorously integrated way. The research is based on two key technical ideas: module calculi (for integration) and open multi-model systems (for interoperation). The module calculus is formalism-independent, and is intended to have powerful new operations such as generalization. Open multi-model systems formalize the multidimensional aspects of independent interoperating parts. ***