Demonstrating Ontology-Based DSL Specification in the Automotive Domain

The lack of formalization in domain-specific language (DSL) specification often results in proprietary solutions, inconsistent semantics, and hinders interdisciplinary collaboration—especially when artifacts are exchanged across lifecycle phases involving diverse stakeholders. To address this, we propose an ontology-based DSL specification process that improves semantic consistency, is tool-independent, and supports reuse beyond model-based environments. Our earlier work focused on metamodel-based formalization, but remains tied to modeling tools and is therefore limited to MBSE contexts. Ontologies, in contrast, are implementation-independent and can serve as a semantic foundation for both modeling and non-modeling artifacts. Exemplified on using the Automotive Reference Architecture Model (ARAM) DSL, we created a domain ontology based on a widely accepted methodology, which we adapted and evaluated for this context. We delineate the roles of ontology and metamodel in the language specification process and position this work as the next step in a top-down effort toward a formalized, lifecycle-spanning DSL engineering approach.