Compositional Schedulability Analysis of Hierarchical Real-Time Systems

Embedded systems are complex as a whole but consist of smaller independent modules interacting with each other. This structure makes them amenable to compositional design. Real-time embedded systems consist of realtime workloads having deadlines. Compositional design of such systems can be done using real-time components arranged in a scheduling hierarchy. Each component consists of some real-time workload and a scheduling policy for the workload. To simplify schedulability analysis for such systems, analysis should be done compositionally using interfaces that abstract timing requirement of components. To facilitate analysis of dynamically changing systems, the framework should also support incremental analysis. In this paper, we overview our approach to compositional and incremental schedulability analysis of hierarchical real-time systems. We describe a compositional analysis technique that abstracts resource requirement of components using periodic resource models. To support incremental analysis and resource bandwidth minimization, we describe an extension to this interface model. Each extended interface consists of multiple periodic resource models for different periods. This allows the selection of a periodic model that can schedule the system using minimum bandwidth. We also account for context switch overhead of components in these extended interfaces. We then describe an associative composition technique for such interfaces, that supports incremental analysis

Compositional schedulability analysis of real-time actor-based systems

We present an extension of the actor model with real-time, including deadlines associated with messages, and explicit application-level scheduling policies, e.g.,"earliest deadline first" which can be associated with individual actors. Schedulability analysis in this setting amounts to checking whether, given a scheduling policy for each actor, every task is processed within its designated deadline. To check schedulability, we introduce a compositional automata-theoretic approach, based on maximal use of model checking combined with testing. Behavioral interfaces define what an actor expects from the environment, and the deadlines for messages given these assumptions. We use model checking to verify that actors match their behavioral interfaces. We extend timed automata refinement with the notion of deadlines and use it to define compatibility of actor environments with the behavioral interfaces. Model checking of compatibility is computationally hard, so we propose a special testing process. We show that the analyses are decidable and automate the process using the Uppaal model checke

Compositional Feasibility Analysis for Conditional Real-Time Task Models

Conditional real-time task models, which are generalizations of periodic, sporadic, and multi-frame tasks, represent real world applications more accurately. These models can be classified based on a tradeoff in two dimensions – expressivity and hardness of schedulability analysis. In this work, we introduce a class of conditional task models and derive efficient schedulability analysis techniques for them. These models are more expressive than existing models for which efficient analysis techniques are known. In this work, we also lay the groundwork for schedulability analysis of hierarchical scheduling frameworks with conditional task models. We propose techniques that abstract timing requirements of conditional task models, and support compositional analysis using these abstractions

A Compositional Approach for Schedulability Analysis of Distributed Avionics Systems

This work presents a compositional approach for schedulability analysis of Distributed Integrated Modular Avionics (DIMA) systems that consist of spatially distributed ARINC-653 modules connected by a unified AFDX network. We model a DIMA system as a set of stopwatch automata in UPPAAL to verify its schedulability by model checking. However, direct model checking is infeasible due to the large state space. Therefore, we introduce the compositional analysis that checks each partition including its communication environment individually. Based on a notion of message interfaces, a number of message sender automata are built to model the environment for a partition. We define a timed selection simulation relation, which supports the construction of composite message interfaces. By using assume-guarantee reasoning, we ensure that each task meets the deadline and that communication constraints are also fulfilled globally. The approach is applied to the analysis of a concrete DIMA system.Comment: In Proceedings MeTRiD 2018, arXiv:1806.09330. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1803.1105

A Modeling Framework for Schedulability Analysis of Distributed Avionics Systems

This paper presents a modeling framework for schedulability analysis of distributed integrated modular avionics (DIMA) systems that consist of spatially distributed ARINC-653 modules connected by a unified AFDX network. We model a DIMA system as a set of stopwatch automata (SWA) in UPPAAL to analyze its schedulability by classical model checking (MC) and statistical model checking (SMC). The framework has been designed to enable three types of analysis: global SMC, global MC, and compositional MC. This allows an effective methodology including (1) quick schedulability falsification using global SMC analysis, (2) direct schedulability proofs using global MC analysis in simple cases, and (3) strict schedulability proofs using compositional MC analysis for larger state space. The framework is applied to the analysis of a concrete DIMA system.Comment: In Proceedings MARS/VPT 2018, arXiv:1803.0866

Process Algebraic Approach to the Schedulability Analysis and Workload Abstraction of Hierarchical Real-Time Systems

Real-time embedded systems have increased in complexity. As microprocessors become more powerful, the software complexity of real-time embedded systems has increased steadily. The requirements for increased functionality and adaptability make the development of real-time embedded software complex and error-prone. Component-based design has been widely accepted as a compositional approach to facilitate the design of complex systems. It provides a means for decomposing a complex system into simpler subsystems and composing the subsystems in a hierarchical manner. A system composed of real-time subsystems with hierarchy is called a hierarchical real-time system This paper describes a process algebraic approach to schedulability analysis of hierarchical real-time systems. To facilitate modeling and analyzing hierarchical real-time systems, we conservatively extend an existing process algebraic theory based on ACSR-VP (Algebra of Communicating Shared Resources with Value-Passing) for the schedulability of real-time systems. We explain a method to model a resource model in ACSR-VP which may be partitioned for a subsystem. We also introduce schedulability relation to define the schedulability of hierarchical real-time systems and show that satisfaction checking of the relation is reducible to deadlock checking in ACSR-VP and can be done automatically by the tool support of ERSA (Verification, Execution and Rewrite System for ACSR). With the schedulability relation, we present algorithms for abstracting real-time system workloads

Logic-based schedulability analysis for compositional hard real-time embedded systems

This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in SIGBED Review, VOL.12, ISS.1, http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2752801.2752808Over the past decades several approaches for schedu- lability analysis have been proposed for both uniprocessor and multi-processor real-time systems. Although different techniques are employed, very little has been put forward in using formal specifications, with the consequent possibility for misinterpretations or ambiguities in the problem statement. Using a logic based approach to schedulability analysis in the design of hard real-time systems eases the synthesis of correct-by- construction procedures for both static and dynamic verification processes. In this paper we propose a novel approach to schedulability analysis based on a timed temporal logic with time durations. Our approach subsumes classical methods for uniprocessor scheduling analysis over compositional resource models by providing the developer with counter-examples, and by ruling out schedules that cause unsafe violations on the system. We also provide an example showing the effectiveness of our proposal.This work was partially supported by National Funds through FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) and by ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) through COMPETE (Operational Programme ’Thematic Fac- tors of Competitiveness’), within projects Ref. FCOMP-01- 0124-FEDER-022701 (CISTER), FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER- 015006 (VIPCORE) and FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-020486 (AVIACC)

A Comparison of Compositional Schedulability Analysis Techniques for Hierarchical Real-Time Systems

Schedulability analysis of hierarchical real-time embedded systems involves defining interfaces that represent the underlying system faithfully and then compositionally analyzing those interfaces. Whereas commonly used abstractions, such as periodic and sporadic tasks and their interfaces, are simple and well studied, results for more complex and expressive abstractions and interfaces based on task graphs and automata are limited. One contributory factor may be the hardness of compositional schedulability analysis with task graphs and automata. Recently, conditional task models, such as the recurring branching task model, have been introduced with the goal of reaching a middle ground in the tradeoff between expressivity and ease of analysis. Consequently, techniques for compositional analysis with conditional models have also been proposed, and each offer different advantages. In this work, we revisit those techniques, compare their advantages using an automotive case study, and identify limitations that would need to be addressed before adopting these techniques for use with real-world problems

Removing Abstraction Overhead in the Composition of Hierarchical Real-Time System

The hierarchical real-time scheduling framework is a widely accepted model to facilitate the design and analysis of the increasingly complex real-time systems. Interface abstraction and composition are the key issues in the hierarchical scheduling framework analysis. Schedulability is essential to guarantee that the timing requirements of all components are satisfied. In order for the design to be resource efficient, the composition must be bandwidth optimal. Associativity is desirable for open systems in which components may be added or deleted at run time. Previous techniques on compositional scheduling are either not resource efficient in some aspects, or cannot achieve optimality and associativity at the same time. In this paper, several important properties regarding the periodic resource model are identified. Based on those properties, we propose a novel interface abstraction and composition framework which achieves schedulability, optimality, and associativity. Our approach eliminates abstraction overhead in the composition