Basic Problems in Multi-View Modeling

Modeling all aspects of a complex system within a single model is a difficult, if not impossible, task. Multi-view modeling is a methodology where different aspects of the system are captured by different models, or views. A key question then is consistency: if different views of a system have some degree of overlap, how can we guarantee that they are consistent, i.e., that they do not contradict each other? In this paper we formulate this and other basic problems in multi-view modeling within an abstract formal framework. We then instantiate this framework onto several discrete system settings: languages and automata over finite and infinite words, and symbolic transition systems; and study how checking view consistency and other problems can be solved in these settings.