Formalization of UML Communication Diagrams using π-Calculus

UML is a general-purpose modeling language for object oriented systems. UML suffers from lack of semantics design due to its semi-formal structure. Formal methods have been used largely in order to deal with this problem. This paper presents a formalization of UML communication diagrams (collaboration diagrams in UML 1.x) semantics using π-calculus computation model. The formalization provides a formal theoretical basis as well as formal analysis and checking for UML communication diagrams. We illustrate our approach by an example in order to explain the general purpose usability of our approach for a wide audience. It also illustrates a practical usage which proved the effectiveness of the translation. Keywords—UML, communication diagram, π-calculus, formal method, formalization, MDA.