Approaching interoperability from the bottom up: a lattice structure for the object-oriented method for interoperability (OOMI)

Software prototyping often incorporates existing components and systems with newly developed code in order to rapidly achieve the goals of the prototyping effort. Unfortunately, heterogeneities among component systems often make system interoperability difficult, potentially reducing the benefit of such an approach. Achieving interoperability among heterogeneous system components is necessary in order to take advantage of the benefits that the use of existing elements brings to prototype development. The predominant approach to achieving interoperability among heterogeneous components involves the development of an intermediate representation. An example is Young´s object-oriented method for interoperability (OOMI), which produces a bottom-up model for the resolution of heterogeneity among component systems. We describe here how to manage the complexity of the bottom-up approach through the use of self-similar components that support scalability, and a lattice structure that limits complexity.