Model-driven distributed systems

The work described in this article supports the view that distributed-system component behavior can be captured during system design and directly used to drive the system at runtime. The authors present methods for achieving this “one step” design and implementation of system behavior through the use of a Petri-net-based executable modeling language. This language provides a direct mapping between modeling constructs and executable code. The work is set in an industrial context through a real problem in electronics-manufacturing shop-floor system design. Through a description of the proposed facilities and their application in an industrial case study, the authors conclude that the decomposition of function, behavior, and system interaction better supports rapid distributed-system development and the required modification of systems to support business-process change