UML visualization of YANG models

Abstract

Formal data-models are one of the corner-stones of automatic network management. We need semantic models that can be automatically interpreted by management applications. At the same time, human domain-experts need to be able to understand the models. This dualistic requirement has lead standard organizations to pick modeling approaches that prioritize either humans or automatic software. YANG is a semantically rich data-modeling language. We have defined a mapping of YANG to UML and a tool that renders UML diagrams from YANG models. This enables the benefits of formal languages for defining interfaces and automatically maintained UML diagrams to involve domain experts.