How would you represent the structure of a network in SysML?

Question

I am studying SySML to describe the structure of complex systems and I am wondering which would be the most appropriate diagram to describe a network configuration. Let's assume that part of the system (macro component) is composed by different components interacting with each other over a LAN network. We would probably have a Block Diagram describing its architecture (i.e. one router, one server, one client, etc.) and, as far as I understood, we can also have an Internal Block Diagram for each relevant component to describe their structure.

My doubt is, how do I represent the physical connection between server A and client B through the router within the Macro Component? An answer could be making use of deployment diagrams which are specified in UML 2.0, do you think there are any better ways?

Also, given something that is transmitted between client a server (i.e. a message, defined within a block - or a class - message), is it possible to express the relation between the message and the network (i.e. the flow over this network consists of this type of message)?.

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

What do you want to describe? The software components deployed on the server, router and client and what communication paths they have? Then a deployment diagram is the right choice. If it is the software components, their interfaces and their logical wiring, a component diagram is the way to go. And if you want to describe the hardware and their physical connections together with the software blocks and their interfaces an ibd with ports and InterfaceBlocks would be right.

Please note that SysML software blocks cannot be realized by classes. They will only be placeholders for an UML Component, that can.

There is an overlap between the ibd and deployment diagrams. However, the focus of both is clear. A deployment diagram shows software components deployed on hardware. The hardware is just described superficially. An ibd shows hardware and software blocks that together form a system. The software is only described superficially.

A message would be modeled by a Signal. The InterfaceBlocks used to define the ports of the blocks in the ibd would have receptions for the signal. If two such ports are connected, it means that the Signal can flow between them.