Ontology formalism and semantic rules supporting traceability management in model-based systems engineering

In model-based systems engineering (MBSE) practice, traceability between the requirement and architecture models is crucial to ensure that the designed architectures can meet system requirements. Traceability can be defined as links from predefined requirements to the corresponding system architectures. Currently, the semantic heterogeneity of the requirement and system architecture models hinders semantic interoperability, causing difficulty in traceability management. To address this challenge, this paper proposes an ontology formalism and semantic rules for traceability management in MBSE. The proposed ontology formalism provides a unified specification that supports the semantic representation of requirement models, system architecture models, and their traceability links. Following the proposed ontology formalism, the semantic rules can effectively support both recognising the traceability links between the requirements at different levels of granularity and system architectures and identifying the requirements or system architectures affected by changes. A case study of automated driving systems is conducted to evaluate the completeness and correctness of the proposed ontology formalism and semantic rules for traceability management. The results demonstrate that the proposed formalism and semantic rules can significantly facilitate the establishment, maintenance, and utilisation of traceability links.