Towards UML-Based Formal Specifications of Component-Based Real-Time Software (original) (raw)

FORMAL SPECIFICATION FOR REAL-TIME OBJECT ORIENTED SYSTEMS WITH UML DESIGN

Traditionally, real-time software system development focuses on low-level programming techniques to increase timeliness and operate within constraints; however, more recently higher-level, object-oriented methodologies are being used to create real-time software systems. This increase in object-oriented design for realtime systems is due to the improved use of active objects and concurrency in object-oriented languages. Real-time aspects have not only improved in many programming languages, but these real-time constraints are becoming more essential in general object-oriented software development. Consequently, the specification of real-time object-oriented systems is becoming important in software development processes. One of the many tools used to specify software is an executable specification language called Descartes. Descartes relates output data to input data as a function of the input data through a tree structure notation called "Hoare trees." This useful specification structure has been extended and supported for several types of systems since the language's creation in 1977. In particular, Descartes has been extended for the specification of real-time systems and for object-oriented designed systems. In spite of this, the combination of the two extensions for specification of real-time object oriented (RTOO) systems has not been tested. Thus, the main objective was to validate that the combination of the two Descartes extensions either satisfied the needed specification for RTOO systems or that the language needed to be additionally extended. To gain further verification of these united Descartes extensions, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) was used for comparison in aspects of design and effectiveness. In this research effort, UML 2.0, a widely used modeling language was used and analyzed to model security requirements along with the application requirements for real time object oriented systems. The outcome from this research effort was efficient modeling notations included to UML 2.0 modeling notations that can be used to specify security requirements in the beginning phase of software engineering, when application requirements are specified.

Integrating UML and UPPAAL for designing, specifying and verifying component-based real-time systems

Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering, 2010

A new tool for integrating formal methods, particularly model checking, in the development process of component-based real-time systems specified in UML is proposed. The described tool, TANGRAM (Tool for Analysis of Diagrams), performs automatic translation from UML diagrams into timed automata, which can be verified by the UPPAAL model checker. We focus on the CORBA Component Model. We demonstrate the overall process of our approach, from system design to verification, using a simple but real application, used in train control systems. Also, a more complex case study regarding train control systems is described.