A Heterogeneous Characterisation of Component-Based System Design in a Categorical Setting

In component-based design, components and communication mechanisms have a different nature; while the former represent the agents that cooperate to fulfill a certain goal, the latter formalise the communication mechanism through which these agents interact. A proper formalisation of the heterogeneity that arises from this difference requires one to employ the most adequate formalism for each of the parts of a specification and then proceed to merge the parts of the system specification characterised in different languages. The approach we propose in this paper is based on the notion of institution, and makes extensive use of institution representations in order to relate the specifications of components and communication mechanisms, each of which might be expressed in different formalisms. The contribution focuses on providing tools needed to engineer heterogeneous languages arising from particular choices for the specification of components and communication devices.