Study on Unified Metamodeling Framework Based on Down-Up Mechanism

In order to capture and relate different aspects of a problem domain, we often require different languages or models. A metamodeling approach can be used to define these languages and models in a rich semantic way. However, current tools or frameworks cannot satisfy the multilayer metamodeling requirement. We suggests a reusable MOF (Meta-Object Facility) metamodeling framework through the Down-up mechanism between the meta-layer model and model-layer model, and this mechanism supports multilayer metamodeling and is compatible with MOF. This paper also suggests a MOF's Bootstrap model by which the framework constructs models in a unified way. In addition, this paper gives a model shift synchronization pruning algorithm in order to keep the relationship consistent between the meta-layer model and the model-level model. As an example, we use the framework to model an agent-based workflow system, and this practice proves the framework can satisfy multilayer modeling requirements in different aspects of a problem domain.