Weighted Property Graph for System Architecture Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current system architecture development tools lack a unified and efficient method to analyze and quantify the consistency and robustness of system architectures, relying on manual and subjective expert evaluations that are inconsistent and lack repeatability, especially in comparing physical and information exchange interfaces.
Innovation Solution
A property graph data model is generated to represent system architectures, allowing for computational analysis of system architecture quality, modularity, robustness, and alignment of physical and functional views, using a weighted part-to-part coupling graph to evaluate consistency and robustness through graph algorithms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual modeling and analysis by experts is used, then analysis depth and quality can be maintained, but the process is time-consuming, subjective, and lacks repeatability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual expert analysis with automated computational algorithms that process system architecture data. The system automatically extracts information from diverse data sources, constructs property graphs, and performs analyses such as robustness evaluation and consistency checking without human intervention, thereby eliminating subjectivity and improving repeatability while reducing time consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs self-service analysis by automatically generating property graphs from system architecture data and executing computational algorithms to evaluate robustness, modularity, and consistency. The analysis process is autonomous, requiring no expert intervention once the input data is provided, thus maintaining high analysis quality while significantly reducing the time and subjectivity associated with manual methods.
2Adaptability or versatility
If data is dispersed among various disparate tools, then each tool can be optimized for its specific domain, but the data becomes difficult to integrate and analyze comprehensively
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a property graph data model as an intermediary layer that mediates between diverse data sources and analysis algorithms. The property graph serves as a unified representation that can ingest data from multiple disparate tools and formats, transforming them into a consistent structure that enables comprehensive analysis without requiring direct integration of all source systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The property graph data model provides universality by serving as a common representation format that can accommodate data from various specialized tools and domains. It acts as a multi-functional interface that both ingests diverse input data and outputs to various analysis algorithms, eliminating the need for tool-specific integration logic and simplifying the overall system architecture.
3Manufacturing precision
If computational analyses are performed on various aspects of system design, then detailed analysis of individual components is possible, but overall system architecture analysis is not achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges detailed component-level data with overall system architecture information into a unified property graph representation. By combining granular component properties with hierarchical architecture relationships, the system enables computational algorithms to perform both detailed component analysis and comprehensive architecture-level analysis simultaneously, eliminating the trade-off between precision and scope.
Solution Approach 2:
The property graph introduces a new dimensional representation that simultaneously captures both fine-grained component details and coarse-grained architecture structure. This multi-scale representation allows computational algorithms to navigate from detailed component level to overall architecture level without loss of information, enabling precise component analysis while achieving comprehensive system architecture evaluation.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method generates a weighted property graph data model to represent a system architecture. The model includes a plurality of vertices representing a plurality of instances of a design dimension of the system architecture, a plurality of weighted compositional edges that connect first pairs of vertices to represent hierarchical directed-composition and hierarchical directed-decomposition of first pairs of instances of the design dimension represented by the corresponding connected first pairs of vertices with respect to one another, and a plurality of weighted interface edges that connect second pairs of the vertices to represent an information exchange interface between second pairs of instances of the design dimension represented by the corresponding connected second pairs of the vertices. Information about the design dimension is extracted from one or more source databases to generate the weighted property graph data model.