Maintaining Emergence in Systems of Systems Integration: a Contractual Approach using SysML

This paper describes a pilot study in the use of model-based techniques in system of systems (SoS) engineering. The focus is on the derivation of specifications for new constituent systems that are to be integrated with an existing SoS. The pilot study is based on a commercial application in the home audio/video domain and illustrates the application of architectural modeling guidelines to the description of a content-streaming SoS using SysML and the formal COMPASS Modeling Language (CML). Analysis of the models leads to the derivation of a specification sufficient for constituent systems to guarantee a key leader election property of the SoS.