Aspects and Transformations to Support Evolution in Model-Driven Engineering

A key benefit of system and software modeling is the ability to explore various design alternatives to reach a fixedpoint representation of a concrete system design. Among a diverse set of configuration possibilities, a model engineer must be able to explore the effects of a design decision (e.g., the effect of a specific communication protocol on systemic properties such as throughput) in a rapid manner and be able to revert back to a previous configuration. Each new design configuration can be simulated or analyzed to determine the effect on a set of observed properties. There are two key challenges in supporting evolution in model-driven engineering: 1) the emergence of crosscutting properties that are projected across a model hierarchy, and 2) scalability issues that concern the expansion of a base model. We have applied model transformation to provide an automated solution that addresses these two modeling challenges.