White Paper: One Model

One Model, Many Interests, Many Views

Ports reflect additional design details reflecting how connections connect to the parts. Ports are drawn as squares on the boundary of the part, can be nested within other ports, and can be labeled with their own name reflecting identity. Ports have arrows reflecting directionality of flow (in, out, or inout). Ports optionally display ball and socket style decorations reflecting provided interfaces (drawn as balls connected to the port) and required interfaces (drawn as sockets). Internal block diagrams have a much higher level of detail than a classic physical or interface block diagram. This detail and the corresponding notations make IBDs ideal for detailed design specification of logical or physical connectivity when communicated to system engineers, software engineers, and subject matter experts. This same level of detail can become problematic at higher levels of abstraction and with broader audiences. In those cases, it is often best to leverage the block diagram with its similar content and structure at an architectural level. Interface and Physical N 2 Diagrams Though infrequently used, interface and physical N 2 diagrams leverage the same concepts of the functional N 2 diagram to represent interfaces and physical connections within a system or system segment. These variants of the N 2 diagram present a simplified representation of connectivity between parts. What these diagrams lack in technical detail (and style) of various block diagram representations, they deliver in simplicity and clarity.

Level of Detail: Low Audience: General Content: Single-level composition with corresponding logical (interface) or physical (link) connections Use: Identification of connections; clustering analysis

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