Model Synchronization: Mappings, Tiles, and Categories

The paper presents a novel algebraic framework for specification and design of model synchronization tools. The basic premise is that synchronization procedures, and hence algebraic operations modeling them, are diagrammatic: they take a configuration (diagram) of models and mappings as their input and produce a diagram as the output. Many important synchronization scenarios are based on diagram operations of square shape. Composition of such operations amounts to their tiling, and complex synchronizers can thus be assembled by tiling together simple synchronization blocks. This gives rise to a visually suggestive yet precise notation for specifying synchronization procedures and reasoning about them.