Supporting UML Sequence Diagrams with a Processor Net Approach

UML sequence diagrams focus on the interaction between different classes. For distributed real time transaction processing it is possible to end up with complex sequence diagrams, containing messages related to system processes. It is difficult to examine alternative combinations of message passing. A solution is to translate these diagrams into an executable processor net model. This is based on the ‘actor model’, Petri net concepts and higher order net constructs. A case study taken from a flight reservation scenario is introduced and used to create a processor net model. This approach offers various advantages like identifying the main processes, executable model creation, verification, formalization, defining schemas and performance analysis.