Foundations of multi-paradigm modeling and simulation: a port ontology for automated model composition

We study the cooncept of ports and we define an ontology for representing them. Ports define the locations of interaction at the boundaries of components or sub-systems; they can be used across different disciplines for both product moodeling and simulation. They are therefore a coonvenient abstraction that allows simulation modelers too moodularize and encapsulate their system descriptions such that configurations oof port-based prooduct models can be used to generate multiple simulation moodels at different levels of abstraction. However, to combine system models effectively across different disciplines, the representation of the ports needs to be unambiguous yet flexible, so that it can accommodate the differences in vocabulary and approach of all the disciplines. We provide an overview of how a port ontology, defined in the web ontology language, OWL, can capture both syntactic information such that autoomated modelers can reason about the system configuratioon and corresponding simulation models.