Towards modeling a Service-Oriented application managing a Smart City using UML 2.x

Context: The evolution of citizens' life in cities in term of services and the evolution of mobile technologies lead to the rise of the concept of “Smart City”. As an effect, the need for applications and software in Smart Cities takes more and more importance. This fact leads developers to look for models and techniques to automate software production, improve quality and reduce costs and time. Objective: In this work, we aim to model a Service-Oriented application managing a “Smart City”. The idea is to provide services that ensure inhabitants comfort and streamline energy consumption. For this aim, we need to model the structural and behavioral aspects of this Service-Oriented application. Method: In the literature, different studies modeled the structural aspect of Service-Oriented applications using the UML component diagrams or Service Component Architecture diagrams (SCA). To model the behavioral aspect, some studies used Business Process Model and Notation diagrams (BPMN). In this work, we use the Unified Modeling Language (UML 2.x) which allows us to design both structural and behavioral aspects. Results: In this work, we put the focus on some services of the “Smart City”. While using UML 2.x in modeling the structural and behavioral aspects of our Service-Oriented application, we obtain four class diagrams and four activity diagrams. These diagrams illustrate the services: energy management, public lighting, air quality and waste collection. Conclusion: It is concluded, on the one hand, that the class diagrams show the structure of the “Smart City”. On the other hand, the activity diagrams show the dynamicity between the different services. Thus, UML 2.x allows us to visualise both structural and behavioral aspects of our Service-Oriented application using the same modeling semantic instead of using different modeling languages.