An approach based on SysML and SystemC to simulate complex systems

The complexity of heterogeneous systems has been increased during last years. One challenge of designing these systems is to deal with the application of methodologies based on Model Driven Architecture (MDA). MDA is a development framework that enables the description of systems by means of different models with transformations. This is an important area of research and consists on developing methodologies to reduce cost and time spent during their development. In our case, SysML, targets system descriptions in a high level of abstraction and provide diagrams for requirements. SystemC language is chosen as an alternative to the traditional languages and its simulation kernel is an important aspect which allows the designer to evaluate the system behaviours through simulations. This paper proposes a combined approach based on MDA concepts and rules to transform SysML semi-formal model to SystemC. The transformations are ensured by ATL language. A traffic light system is taken as a reference case study and used to illustrate our practical application. It is implemented on TopCased platform.