14.09.2000 slide 1 wolfram höpken rmsig reference model special interest group third rmsig workshop...

14.09.2000 Slide 1Wolfram Höpken RMSIGRMSIGReference Model Special Interest Group

Third RMSIG Workshop

Basic Modeling Concepts

Wolfram Höpken


Workshop Objective

• first and second workshop– discuss and agree upon methodology and process

• discuss white paper• evaluate prototype

• third workshop– identify basic modeling concepts and mechanisms– specify tourism specific modeling language

• forth workshop– specify reference model building blocks

• fifth workshop– agree upon first release of reference model


Agenda

• methodology of the reference model

• market participants and requirements

• domain analysis – survey

• specification of tourism modeling language

• Tourtags.org

• process of the RMSIG and next activities

• conclusion


Agenda





• Tourtags.org


• conclusion


Motivation

• drawbacks of current standardization initiatives– lack of flexibility and extendibility

• fix standards are hard to maintain

• no possibility for suppliers to differentiate their offer

– lack of expressiveness• description languages (e.g. XML) can not express all

information, necessary for interoperability

• lack of semantic information (e.g. relationships), process information, constraints,...


Methodology

• framework for modeling electronic tourism markets– uniform language with standardized building

blocks as vocabulary for describing electronic tourism markets

– conceptual, abstract modeling of tourism markets

– modeling based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML)


UML – Unified Modeling Language

• graphical language for describing and visualizing models of systems

• UML 1.3 adopted as standard by the OMG• enables the modeling of

– static structure of a system• entities, their internal structure• relationships between entities

– behavior of a system• interactions between entities (scenarios)• state sequences, activity sequences


Modeling Levels

UML model

XML model Distributed object model


XML Perspective

XMI documents

XML DTDs

UML DTDs

Meta level

XML documentsData level

UML model


Distributed Object Perspective

UML model (concept) UML model (BOI)

XMI documents

XML DTDs

XML documents

Meta level

Data level BOs

IDL descriptions

XMI documents


Modeling Language

• tourism specific modeling language based on the UML– extends the UML by domain specific concepts

and mechanisms• composition mechanism• market interface descriptions

– provides building blocks as specific modeling elements

– enables the flexible description of specific models


Modeling Language (2)

UMLUML

Domain modelDomain model

Common meta level

concrete level


Modeling Language (2)

UMLUML

Domain modelDomain model

Common meta level

concrete level

Tourism modeling languageTourism modeling language Domain specific meta level


Building Blocks

• building blocks as specific modeling elements

• building blocks are provided on different levels of granularity– elementary building blocks (date, location,...)– tourism services (flight, hotel,...)– process building blocks (searching, booking,...)


Building Blocks

Process layer

Entity layer

Base layer

Name

Category

Room

Hotel Time

Route

Class

Flight Name

Address

Age

Customer

Criteria

Customer

ResultList

Searching Service

Customer

Date

Booking

StartLocation

EndLocation

RouteDate

Time

FacilitiesLocation

Address

Name


Building Concrete Models

• concrete models with specific entities are described or modelled by the UML-based tourism modeling language

• the provided building blocks can be used as basic modeling elements– composition: describe a specific entity as a

composition of building blocks– inheritance: describe a specific entity as a

refinement of a building block


Specific model

Reference model

Building Concrete Models (2)

Name

Category

Room

Hotel

CureServices

Name

Category

Room

CureHotel

derive

Category

Room

Time

MoonFlight

compose

MealPlan

Time

Route

Class

compose

XYFlight

Time

Class

Room

Name

Route

Category

CureServices

MealPlan


Interoperability

Supplier Customer

Reference model

2

lookup3

MealPlan

Time

Route

Class

XYFlight

MealPlan

Time Route

Class

1MealPlan

Time Route

Class

5 MealPlan

Time Route

Class

4

MealPlan

Time

Route

Class

XYFlight


Advantages

• flexibility and adaptability for suppliers• flexibility for change• low entrance barriers to electronic markets for

suppliers (SMEs)• easy access of customers to a wide range of

services• separation of semantic aspects and technical

aspects• interoperability is supported on all possible

communication levels


Agenda





• Tourtags.org


• conclusion


Market Participants and Requirements

• identification of participants of electronic tourism markets (customer, supplier,...)

• identification of their requirements to each other:– functional requirements– non-functional requirements

use cases of electronic tourism markets


Market Participants


Requirements Customer/Broker to Supplier

• search requests– vague requests– similar results– service composition

• availability requests• booking execution

– booking of services– status request– cancelling a booking

• further information (descriptions, pictures)

• user profiles• feedback management• request metadata• security• support of different

languages and currencies


Use Cases Customer/Broker to Supplier


Requirements Customer to Broker

• request for market data (e.g. list of suppliers and available services)

• periodical and event triggered requests

• auction services


Use Cases Customer to Broker


RequirementsFront-end Supplier to Broker

• supply of tourism services– creation and modification of services– definition of flexible services– substitution services– composition services

• booking processing

• request user profiles


Use CasesFront-end Supplier to Broker


Agenda





• Tourtags.org


• conclusion


Tourism Modeling Language

• tourism specific modeling language– provides basic concepts and mechanisms for

modeling electronic tourism markets– enables the uniform description of specific

market components

• approach– metalevel extends the UML by domain specific

modeling elements– building blocks are provided as common

vocabulary


Concepts and Mechanisms

• composition mechanism for the flexible construction of tourism services– elementary tourism services out of service

components(e.g. hotel out of room and meal plan)

– composition services out of elementary services(e.g. package tour out of flight and hotel)

• availability– flexible management of the availability of

tourism services or their components


Concepts and Mechanisms (2)

• selection criteria– modeling selection relevant characteristics of

tourism services in a flexible way• depending on the components of a tourism service

• evaluated dynamically out of the attributes

• selection hierarchies– comfortable selection process (fuzzy requests,

similar results)– flexible derivation of building blocks



• views on tourism services– consideration of different interfaces (views) of

tourism services, depending on• the role of the observer (market participant)

• the market, in which the service is offered

• service states– modeling different states of tourism services

during their lifecycle (offered, booked, used) and state transitions



• multi language support– consideration of different languages for all

language-dependent information

• country-specific formats– integration of different country-specific formats

for date, time, currency etc. and transformation between different formats



• market processes– concept for describing market component

interfaces, consisting of market processes– interface descriptions understandable for other

market participants


Reference Model Architecture

Building blocks

Metalevel

Process layer

Entity layer

Base layer

Information processes Booking processes

Commonentities

Servicecomponents

Elementarytourism services

Composition services

Service states

Common entities

Tourism services

Types Processes

Common types

Data main-tenance

Session manage-

ment

Lookup service

Base classes


Reference Model Metalevel

• extends the UML• provides a virtual metamodel• adds tourism specific modeling elements• described as UML profile

– stereotypes– tagged values– constraints

MetalevelService states

Common entities

Tourism services

Types Processes


Reference Model Metalevel

• types: metaclasses for modeling tourism-specific basic types

• common entities: metaclasses, which are used in different packages of the metamodel

• tourism services: metaclasses, providing concepts for constructing tourism services

• service states: metaclasses, for dealing with different states of tourism services

• processes: metaclasses for describing market processes and interfaces

MetalevelService states

Common entities

Tourism services

Types Processes


Tourism Services

Building blocks

Metalevel

Process layer

Entity layer

Base layer


Commonentities

Servicecomponents



Service states

Common entities

Tourism services

Types Processes

Common types

Data main-tenance

Session manage-

ment

Lookup service

Base classes


Composition Mechanism

• mechanism for the flexible construction of tourism services (composition mechanism)– complex services as composition of elementary

services (e.g. package tour as composition of flight and hotel)

– elementary services as composition of service components (e.g. hotel as composition of room and meal plan)

• composition consists of– components (elementary components or compositions)– selection criteria (attributes)– constraints (restrict combination possibilities)


Example Package Touroutward flight

departure airport

destination airport

price

return flight

departure airport

destination airport

price

hotel

name

destination

price

package tour

point of departure

destination

hotel name

price

Constraints:destination airport outward flight = hotel dest.departure airport return flight = hotel dest.arrival date outward flight = hotel check-in date departure date return flight = hotel check-out date


Composition Mechanism


Example Hotel


Example Train


Selection Criteria

• selection relevant characteristics of tourism services

• represent a dynamic interface to the customer• evaluated from the attributes of service

components

Component

a1 a2 am

s1 s2 sp si = f ( aj, bj)

Component

b1 b2 bn


Selection Criteria


Views

• concept for different views on tourism services

• views depend on– the market in which the service is offered– the role of the observer (e.g. business or leisure

traveller)

• views provide additional selection criteria, evaluated by the selection criteria of the tourism service


Views

Tourism Service

s1 s2 sn

v1 v2 vm vi = f ( sj ) View


Views


Selection Hierarchies

• selection hierarchies consist of the values of an attribute or selection criterion on different abstraction levels

• selection hierarchies support– flexible derivation of building blocks– comfortable selection process

• fuzzy requests

• similar results


Selection Hierarchies (2)

Category

medium

4 5 3 2 1

low high Accommodation

Hotel


Availability• mechanism for specifying the availability of

components of tourism services• consideration of availability variants

– no availability (no bookability)– tiered availability

• available (bookable)• limited available (unsecure bookable)• not available (not bookable)

– complete availability (full bookability)


Availability (2)


Example Hotel


Building Blocks

Building blocks

Metalevel

Process layer

Entity layer

Base layer


Commonentities

Servicecomponents



Service states

Common entities

Tourism services

Types Processes

Common types

Data main-tenance

Session manage-

ment

Lookup service

Base classes


Tourism Service Accommodation


Tourism Service Hotel


Service States

Building blocks

Metalevel

Process layer

Entity layer

Base layer


Commonentities

Servicecomponents



Service states

Common entities

Tourism services

Types Processes

Common types

Data main-tenance

Session manage-

ment

Lookup service

Base classes


Service States• different states of a tourism service during its

lifecycle– potential service: provided by a supplier

contains all optional components and variants

– offered service: result of a search requestvariants are selected, selection

criteria evaluated– booked service: offered service, which has been

booked by a customer– used service: service, which has been used by the

customer


Service States (2)


Market Processes and Components

Building blocks

Metalevel

Process layer

Entity layer

Base layer


Commonentities

Servicecomponents



Service states

Common entities

Tourism services

Types Processes

Common types

Data main-tenance

Session manage-

ment

Lookup service

Base classes


Market Processes and Components• market components provide a set

of services or processes

• interfaces of market components are described by the available processes and their input and output

• lookup service provides market interface descriptions to other market participants


Search Process


Search Process (2)


Types

Building blocks

Metalevel

Process layer

Entity layer

Base layer


Commonentities

Servicecomponents



Service states

Common entities

Tourism services

Types Processes

Common types

Data main-tenance

Session manage-

ment

Lookup service

Base classes


Types

• concepts for modeling specific basic types• support of different languages and country-specific

formats– simple types: tourism specific simple types

(e.g. bed type, room type, age)– type families: union of types, each member

representing a specific format (e.g. different formats for currency, date or time)

– multi types: containing different instances of a simple type as variants (e.g. a hotel name or description in different languages)


Types (2)


Agenda





• Tourtags.org


• conclusion


Process of the RMSIG

• expand domain analysis (survey)

• finalize tourism modeling languagespecify common building blocksforth workshop

• commit reference modelfifth workshop

• review activities

• Tourtags.org


Milestones and Deliverables

07/2000 Initial methodological frameworkCommitted initial version of the methodological framework for harmonizing electronic tourism markets

11/2000 Initial specification of electronic tourism marketsCommitted initial specification of electronic tourism markets

01/2001 Committed methodology and specificationCommitted final version of the harmonization methodology and the specification of electronic tourism markets

03/2001 Reference model of an electronic tourism market –Version 1.0First committed version of the reference model


Next Activities

• forth workshop– objective

• specify reference model building blocks

• prepare first version of reference model

– date: end of November

• next activities– expand domain analysis (survey)– finalize modeling language elements– specify building blocks


Agenda





• Tourtags.org


• conclusion

14.09.2000 slide 1 wolfram höpken rmsig reference model special interest group third rmsig workshop...

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