Efficient representation of timed UML 2 interactions

Abstract

UML 2 interactions describe system behavior over time in a declara- tive way. The standard approach to defining their formal semantics enumerates traces of events; other representation formats, like Büchi automata or prime event structures, have been suggested, too. We describe another, more succinct format, interaction structures, which is based on asymmetric event structures. It simplifies the integration of real time, and complex operators like alt and break, and leads to an efficient semantic representation of interactions. We provide the formalism, and a prototypical implementation highlighting the benefits of our approach.