Abstract interactions and interaction refinement in model-driven design

In a model-driven design process the interaction between application parts can be described at various levels of platform-independence. At the lowest level of platform-independence, interaction is realized by interaction mechanisms provided by specific middleware platforms. At higher levels of platform-independence, interaction must be described in such a way that it can be further refined and realized onto a number of different middleware platforms, each with its particular interaction mechanisms and implementation constraints. In this paper we investigate concepts that support interaction design at various levels of middleware-platform independence. Also, we propose design operations for interaction refinement. The application of these operations to source designs results in target designs that take into account implementation constraints imposed by platforms, while preserving characteristics prescribed in source designs.