The request of formal methods for the specification and analysis of distributed systems is nowadays increasing, especially when considering the development of Cloud systems and Web applications. This is due to the fact that modeling languages currently used in these areas have informal definitions and ambiguous semantics, and therefore their use may be unreliable. Thanks to their mathematical foundation, formal methods can guarantee rigorous system design, leading to precise models where requirements can be validated and properties can be assured, already at the early stages of the system development. In this paper, we present a rigorous engineering process for distributed systems, based on the Abstract State Machines (ASM) formal method. We rely on the foundational notions of ASM ground model and model refinement to obtain a precise model for a client-server application for Cloud systems. This application has been proposed to tackle the problem of making Cloud services usable to different end-devices by adapting on-the-fly the content coming from the Cloud to the different devices contexts. The ASM-based modeling process is supported by a number of validation and verification activities that have been exploited on the component under development to guarantee consistency, correctness, and reliability properties.
With the rising complexity of modern products and a trend from single products to Systems of Systems (SoS) where the produced system consists of multiple subsystems and the integration of multiple domains is a mandatory step, new approaches for development are demanded. This chapter explores how Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) can benefit from big data technologies to implement smarter engineering processes. The chapter presents the Boost 4.0 Testbed that demonstrates how digital twin continuity and digital thread can be realized from service engineering, production, product performance, to behavior monitoring. The Boost 4.0 testbed demonstrates the technical feasibility of an interconnected operation of digital twin design, ZDM subtractive manufacturing, IoT product monitoring, and spare part 3D printing services. It shows how the IDSA reference model for data sovereignty, blockchain technologies, and FIWARE open-source technology can be jointly used for breaking silos, providing a seamless and controlled exchange of data across digital twins based on open international standards (ProStep, QIF), allowing companies to dramatically improve cost, quality, timeliness, and business results.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.