Towards Model Checking Executable UML Specifications in mCRL2

We describe a translation of a subset of executable UML (xUML) into the process algebraic specification language mCRL2. This subset includes class diagrams with class generalisations, and state machines with signal and change events. The choice of these xUML constructs is dictated by their use in the modelling of railway interlocking systems. The long-term goal is to verify safety properties of interlockings modelled in xUML using the mCRL2 and LTSmin toolsets. Initial verification of an interlocking toy example demonstrates that the safety properties of model instances depend crucially on the run-to-completion assumptions

An Operator-based Approach to Incremental Development of Conform Protocol State Machines

An incremental development framework which supports a conform construction of Protocol State Machines (PSMs) is presented. We capture design concepts and strategies of PSM construction by sequentially applying some development operators: each operator makes evolve the current PSM to another one. To ensure a conform construction, we introduce three conformance relations, inspired by the specification refinement and specification matchings supported by formal methods. Conformance relations preserve some global behavioral properties. Our purpose is illustrated by some development steps of the card service interface of an electronic purse: for each step, we introduce the idea of the development, we propose an operator and we give the new specification state obtained by the application of this operator and the property of this state relatively to the previous one in terms of conformance relation

The unified coordination language UnCL.

In this paper we show how to use a (subset) of UML as an Unified Coordination Language (UnCL) that is based on a separation of concerns between coordination and computation. As such UnCL provides a general language for the coordination of, in particular, object-oriented applications. The basic idea of UnCL is to use UML as a formalism to specify the `glue code' in terms of state-machines which are added to the classes of the underlying applications. These state-machines describe the coordination of the objects of the underlying applications in terms of sending and receiving events. We introduce a formal semantics of UnCL and discuss its implementation using a new tool for the transformation of XML data which is based on a new Rule Markup Language (RML). Finally, we discuss the incorporation of a more high-level coordination mechanism called MoCha, an exogenous coordination framework for (distributed) communication and collaboration using mobile channels as its mediu

An Operator-based Approach to Incremental Development of Conform Protocol State Machines

http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2006/695/ ISBN : 978-3-939897-02-6International audienceAn incremental development framework which supports a conform construction of Protocol State Machines (PSMs) is presented. We capture design concepts and strategies of PSM construction by sequentially applying some development operators: each operator makes evolve the current PSM to another one. To ensure a conform construction, we introduce three conformance relations, inspired by the specification refinement and specification matchings supported by formal methods. Conformance relations preserve some global behavioral properties. Our purpose is illustrated by some development steps of the card service interface of an electronic purse: for each step, we introduce the idea of the development, we propose an operator and we give the new specification state obtained by the application of this operator and the property of this state relatively to the previous one in terms of conformance relation

A Formal and Tool-Equipped Approach for the Integration of State Diagrams and Formal Datatypes

International audienceSeparation of concerns or aspects is a way to deal with the increasing complexity of systems. The separate design of models for different aspects also promotes a better reusability level. However, an important issue is then to define means to integrate them into a global model. We present a formal and tool-equipped approach for the integration of dynamic models (behaviors expressed using state diagrams) and static models (formal data types) with the benefit to share advantages of both: graphical user-friendly models for behaviors, formal and abstract models for data types. Integration is achieved in a generic way so that it can deal with both different static specification languages (algebraic specifications, Z, B) and different dynamic specification semantic

Aspect-Oriented State Machines

UML state machines are a widely used language for modeling software behavior. They are considered to be simple and intuitively comprehensible, and are hence one of the most popular languages for modeling reactive components. However, this seeming ease to use vanishes rapidly as soon as the complexity of the system to model increases. In fact, even state machines modeling ``almost trivial'' behavior may get rather hard to understand and error-prone. In particular, synchronization of parallel regions and history-based features are often difficult to model in UML state machines. We therefore propose High-Level Aspect (HiLA), a new, aspect-oriented extension of UML state machines, which can improve the modularity, thus the comprehensibility and reusability of UML state machines considerably. Aspects are used to define additional or alternative system behaviors at certain ``interesting'' points of time in the execution of the state machine, and achieve a high degree of separation of concerns. The distinguishing feature of HiLA w.r.t. other approaches of aspect-oriented state machines is that HiLA aspects are defined on a high, i.e. semantic level as opposed to a low, i.e. syntactic level. This semantic approach makes \HiLA aspects often simpler and better comprehensible than aspects of syntactic approaches. The contributions of this thesis include 1) the abstract and the concrete syntax of HiLA, 2) the weaving algorithms showing how the (additional or alternative) behaviors, separately modeled in aspects, are composed with the base state machine, giving the complete behavior of the system, 3) a formal semantics for HiLA aspects to define how the aspects are activated and (after the execution) left. We also discuss what conflicts between HiLA aspects are possible and how to detect them. The practical applicability of HiLA is shown in a case study of a crisis management system

Domain specific modeling and analysis

It is desirable to model software systems in such a way that analysis of the systems, and tool development for such analysis, is readily possible and feasible in the context of large scientific research projects. This thesis emphasizes the methodology that serves as a basis for such developments. I focus on methods for the design of data-languages and their corresponding tools.UBL - phd migration 201

A general algebra of business rules for heterogeneous systems

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo