A Semantic-Based Approach to Interoperability of UML Schemas

Abstract

We address in this paper the issue of a semantic interoperability between systems relying on semantically heterogeneous models, having been designed for the purpose of independent specific goals and activities. Examples of models include ER-schema, ontologies and taxonomies. In our approach, we make explicit the semantics embedded in UML class diagrams. Towards the high expressiveness of UML constructs, we formalize their semantics in terms of a logic belonging to description logics. However, in our opinion, description logics's constructors are not sufficient to express contextual knowledge, we propose a reference metamodel that offers contextual primitives