Modeling Aspects of Dynamically Reconfigurable System of Systems

Dynamic reconfiguration is challenging, especially for a system of systems (SoS), although it is necessary given the nature and amount of change these systems undergo. SoS has certain specifics, such as independent development and the so-called emergent behavior, which need to be handled through new approaches. We investigate the possibilities of using modeling to provide some guarantees for such complex SoS in the presence of change. Our modeling language of choice is Systems Machine Language version 2 (SysML v2) and its textual representation in particular because it leads to more formal and precise representation and promotes the utilization of tools. We focus on the automation that tools can achieve as the SoS evolves during its life cycle. Our approach uses selected sets of models for each constituent system and a higher-level integration that ensures that all combinations can work at run time. We also explore the effects on SoS when adding, removing, and updating a constituent system. A protocol is proposed for handling dynamic reconfiguration in a distributed manner.