Object Process Network

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The OPN Logo
The OPN Logo

Object Process Network (OPN) [1] is a domain-neutral, executable meta-language designed to represent, generate, and manipulate simulation models. OPN represents a system in terms of a network of objects and processes. Objects in an OPN model store the intermediary states of the executing OPN model. Processes in an OPN model store the transformation rules that change the state of an executing model. The execution trajectories of an OPN model are also represented as networks of objects and processes. As a meta-language, OPN allows users to specify the space of possible models using formal OPN syntax and semantics. Pragmatic simulation algorithms, such as symbolic expression processor and numeric calculation engines are also embedded in the OPN execution environment, to perform the mechanical tasks of model creation and domain-specific computation tasks.

OPN's execution semantics are based on a computational framework called Algebra of Systems (AoS).

[edit] References

  1. ^ B. H. Y. Koo. A Meta-language for Systems Architecting. PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 2005. PDF File
2. B. H. Y. Koo, W. L. Simmons, and E. F. Crawley. Algebra of systems: an executable framework for model synthesis and evaluation. In Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Systems Engineering and Modeling, 2007.