Building a Reference Architecture for Cargo Ports using Patterns

Abstract

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are physical entities whose operations are monitored, coordinated and controlled by a complex network of computers, software and communication technologies. These systems are heterogeneous and present a myriad of implementation details. In order to design efficient and dependable CPS systems we must abstract their cross domain complexity and develop a common framework, namely a Reference Architecture (RA). RAs describe at an abstract level and with no implementation details, the main functions of the system. The use of reference architectures and patterns is an effective way to organize and describe not only the functional and non-functional aspects of the system but also to unify the design of the computational, communication and control aspects of CPSs. In this paper we propose a method to build a Reference Architecture for CPS using patterns and UML models that go beyond existing models to provide a global view and a more precise description of the system. The design and analysis is given using a Cargo Port as our example, but the approach can be used in other domains as well.