Abstract
UML Interaction diagrams (Sequence diagrams (SD), Collaboration diagrams or Communication diagrams) lack a formal semantics; they include some amount of ambiguity so that formal techniques cannot be applied e.g. for automatically deriving the behavior of the objects (as Statecharts or State-Transition diagrams) from the SD where they appear. To overcome this situation, this paper first analyses and simplifies the semantic relationships among the concepts that intervene in the definition of SDs: synchronous / asynchronous, activator andreturn messages. Then it proposes an interpretation of the precedence association among messages that yields to an operational semantics of SDs that orders the actions of emitting and receiving messages according to a causality relationship.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cardoso, J., Sibertin Blanc, C.: An operational semantics for UML interaction: sequencing of actions and local control. European Journal of Automatised Systems APII-JESA 36,Hermès-Lavoisier 1015–1028 (2002) ISBN 2-7462-0573-4
OMG Unified Modeling Language Specification : version 1.5 Mars (2003), http://www.omg.org/
ITU-T recommendation Z.120. Message Sequence Charts (MSC 1996), ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (May 1996)
Booch, G., Jacobson, I., Rumbaugh, J.: The Unified Modeling Language User Guide. Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series. Addison-Wesley, Reading (1998) ISBN 0201571684
Bernadi, S., Donatelli, S., Merseguer, J.: From UML Sequence Diagrams and Statecharts to analysable Petri Models. In: Proceedings of the third international workshop on Software and performance, Rome, Italy, pp. 35–45 (2002) ISBN:1-58113-563-7
Alur, R., Etessami, K., Yannakakis, M.: Inference of Message Sequence Charts. In: Proceedings of the 22nd international conference on Software engineering, Limerick, Ireland, pp. 304–313 (2000) ISBN:1-58113-206-9
Mukund, M., Kumar, K.N., Sohoni, M.: Synthesizing distributed Finite-state systems from MSCs. In: Palamidessi, C. (ed.) CONCUR 2000. LNCS, vol. 1877, pp. 521–535. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)
Whittle, J., Schumann, J.: Generating Statechart Designs From Scenarios. In: Proceedings of the 22nd international conference on Software engineering, Limerik, Ireland, pp. 314–323 (2000) ISBN:1-58113-206-9
Uchitel, S., Kramer, J., Magee, J.: Detecting Implied Scenarios in Message Sequence Chart Specifications. In: Proc. Of the European Software Engineering Conference (ESEC/FSE 2001), Vienna (2001)
Knapp, A.: A Formal Semantics for UML Interactions. In: France, R.B., Rumpe, B. (eds.) UML 1999. LNCS, vol. 1723, pp. 116–130. Springer, Heidelberg (1999)
Aredo, D.B.: A Framework for Semantics of UML Sequence Diagrams in PVS. Journal of Universal Computer Science (JUCS) 8(7), 674–697 (2002)
Pikin, S.: PhD thesis. Test des composants logiciels pour les télécommunications. Universitéde Rennes, France (2003)
Li, X.n., Liu, Z., He, J.: A Formal Semantics of UML Sequence Diagram. In: Proc. Australian Software Engineering Conference 2004, Australia (April 2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Sibertin-Blanc, C., Tahir, O., Cardoso, J. (2005). Interpretation of UML Sequence Diagrams as Causality Flows. In: Ramos, F.F., Larios Rosillo, V., Unger, H. (eds) Advanced Distributed Systems. ISSADS 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3563. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11533962_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11533962_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-28063-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31674-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)