I understand that UML sequence diagram is to depict, sequential and ordered flow of messages between components. I would like to depict such a flow in a distributed system, with node being my components.
The flow I want to represent, is in the form of A->B->C. Say this system has N nodes; A can be any node within these N nodes; B can be any node other than A; and C can be any node other than A and B. Such a flow would be different from, say, A1->A2->A3, where A1, A2, and A3 can be any nodes in the system, and I don’t care if A1 and A2 are the same. I am wondering if UML has a formal way to describe such a relationship. Or if other diagrams/models are better in describing this.
For now the only way I can think of is to have three entities, each named “A”, “B”, and “C”. But this means that the reader has to infer implicitly that A, B, and C are different nodes by their name. I am looking for a way to formalize this.
