On the Need for Temporal Model Repositories

Current model repositories often rely on existing versioning systems or standard database technologies. These approaches are sufficient for hosting different versions of models. However, the time dimension is often not explicitly represented and accessible. A more explicit presentation of time is needed in several use cases going beyond the classical system design phase support of models such as in simulation and runtime environments. In this paper, we discuss the need for introducing temporal model repositories and their prospective benefits. In particular, we outline several challenges which immediately arise when moving towards temporal model repositories, which are: storage, consistency, access, manipulation, and visualization of temporal models.