5.5 ConnectsTo and ConnectsToParent ReferenceTypes

The ConnectsTo ReferenceType is a concrete ReferenceType used to indicate that source and target Node have a topological connection. It is NonHierarchical and symmetric, because this is natural for this Reference. The ConnectsTo Reference exists between a Network and the connected Devices (or their ConnectionPoint, respectively). Browsing a Network returns the connected Devices; browsing from a Device, one can follow the ConnectsTo Reference from the Device’s ConnectionPoint to the Network.

The ConnectsToParent ReferenceType is a concrete ReferenceType used to define the parent (i.e. the communication Device) of a Network. It is a subtype of the ConnectsTo ReferenceType.

The two ReferenceTypes are illustrated in Figure 23.

The representation in the AddressSpace is specified in Table 48 and Table 49.

Figure 24 illustrates how this Reference can be used to express topological relationships and parental relationships. In this example two Devices are connected; the module DPcomm is the communication Device for the Network.