Platform-independent modeling in MDA: supporting abstract platforms

An MDA-based design approach should be able to accommodate designs at different levels of platform-independence. We have previously proposed a design approach [2], which allows these levels to be identified. An important feature of this approach is the notion of abstract platform. An abstract platform is determined by considering the platform characteristics that are relevant for applications at a certain level of platform-independence as well as the various design goals. In this paper, we discuss how our design approach can be supported using the MDA standards UML 2.0 and MOF 2.0. Since our methodological framework is based on the notion of abstract platform, we pay particular attention to the representation of abstract platforms and the language requirements to specify abstract platforms.