Model-Based Systems Engineering Design and Trade-Off Analysis with RDF Graphs

Within the Semantic Web community, resource description frameworks (RDF) and logical reasoning engines work together to provide semantic support and reasoning for Web applications. This paper explores the use of RDF graphs for the representation of graphs of requirements and specification of design component properties. We show that the component selection design problem and associated trade-space analysis can be cast as a sequence inference analyses on RDF graphs. Inference procedures are provided for assessment of requirements in terms of component attribute values, identification of compatible component interface pairs, component selection to meet the system architecture requirements, and computation of system cost, performance and reliability. Our prototype implementation makes extensive use of Java and Python, and focuses on the satisfaction of requirements and component selection for a home theater design problem.