Automated deserializer generation from CIM ontologies: CIM $${+}{+}$$ + + —an easy-to-use and automated adaptable open-source library for object deserialization in C $${+}{+}$$ + + from documents based on user-specified UML models following the Common Information Model (CIM) standards for the energy sector

Abstract

The increasing complexity of ICT systems in smart grids requires that all actors improve their interoperability. To this aim, IEC 61970/61968 specify the Common Information Model (CIM) which describes terms in the energy sector and relations between them. One of the key features of CIM is its object-oriented design based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML). This makes CIM easy to maintain and extensible by visual UML editors leading to a continuous standardization process keeping up with new developments. But this means that CIM based software must be kept up-to-date as well. Therefore, this paper presents our Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) based approach with which CIM, as specified by a visual UML editor, can be mapped to a compilable C\({+}{+}\) codebase. Moreover, it shows how this codebase can be used for an automated generation of a C\({+}{+}\) objects deserializer from CIM based documents following the UML specification. All presented approaches are implemented in an open-source project called CIM\({+}{+}\) and evaluated on a real-world use case.