XSLT transformation from UML models to LQN performance models

Abstract

A graph grammar-based transformation of a UML design model into a Layered Queueing Network (LQN) performance model was previously proposed by the authors of this paper. The actual transformation was implemented in two ways: first by using an existing graph-rewriting tool, and secondly through an ad-hoc graph transformation implemented in Java.This paper extends the previous work of the authors by proposing a third approach to implement the UML to LQN transformation by using XSLT. Recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) the Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations (XSLT) is a flexible language for transforming XML documents into various formats including HTML, XML, text, PDF, etc. The input to our XSLT transformation is an XML file that contains the UML model in XML format according to the standard XML Metadata Interchange (XMI). The output is the corresponding LQN model description file, which can be read directly by existing LQN solvers. The paper compares the relative advantages and disadvantages of the XSLT transformation with the previous approaches proposed by the authors, describes the principles of the XSLT transformation and applies it to a case study.