A Meta-Model Based Approach for Definition of a Multi-Formalism Modeling Framework

Many software tools and environments are developed for modeling discrete-event systems. Although, most of the existing tool are proposed for modeling with one or a few modeling languages. In this paper, the authors propose a meta-modeling approach for definition of a multi-formalism modeling framework for Petri nets and related formal modeling languages. The proposed framework and the related software tool facilitate the inclusion of formalisms in the framework in a unified manner. The proposed meta-modeling structure is designed in four layers such that the most abstract layer as the meta-formalism and the least abstract layer as the concrete model. The basic concepts of the meta-modeling structure and some examples of formalisms are presented based on the proposed structure.