Employing SysML to model and explore levels‐of‐service: The case of passenger comfort in railway transportation systems

Abstract

The concept of Level of Service (LoS) is not inherently supported by Systems Modeling Language (SysML), the standard modeling notation for model‐based systems engineering. This paper describes and demonstrates an approach that enhances SysML to enable LoS modeling and evaluation. A SysML profile enables the definition and visual verification of LoS during system operation, via LoS specific requirements, inside the system model, and the association of these requirements with specific system components. Hence, static and dynamic aspects of the system model are used for the LoS verification, while specific design alternatives are automatically proposed, in case the desired LoS is not achieved. As a proof of concept, the proposed approach was applied to explore passenger comfort, a key LoS metric, indicating space available to passenger in Railway Transportation Systems (RTSs). A specific case study on passenger comfort for the Athens Metro was conducted to derive insights regarding the practical aspects of the proposed approach.

Model‐based user experience‐focused roadmapping

“…For each type of architecture (e.g., according to INCOSE, 48 physical and logical, which includes functional behavioral, temporal), SysML has a separate representation (diagram). Kotronis et al 49 . have applied SysML for the assessment of UX‐related metrics during complex systems design (namely, passenger's comfort).…”

“…logical, which includes functional behavioral, temporal), SysML has a separate representation (diagram). Kotronis et al49 have applied SysML for the assessment of UX-related metrics during complex systems design (namely, passenger's comfort). The application of SysML for roadmapping was demonstrated in Breckel et al…”

A survey on what users think about SysML

“…In the past years, SysML has been used in academia and industry to support the development of software and systems in many domains, including energy, 33 transportation, 34 automotive design, 35 Cyber‐Physical Systems 36 and many others 26 . However, the purpose of this section is to describe surveys instead of individual results on the use of SysML in a domain, even though surveys on SysML, or even other modeling languages, are not commonly described in the literature.…”