4,411 research outputs found
Putting Teeth into Open Architectures: Infrastructure for Reducing the Need for Retesting
Proceedings Paper (for Acquisition Research Program)The Navy is currently implementing the open-architecture framework for developing joint interoperable systems that adapt and exploit open-system design principles and architectures. This raises concerns about how to practically achieve dependability in software-intensive systems with many possible configurations when: 1) the actual configuration of the system is subject to frequent and possibly rapid change, and 2) the environment of typical reusable subsystems is variable and unpredictable. Our preliminary investigations indicate that current methods for achieving dependability in open architectures are insufficient. Conventional methods for testing are suited for stovepipe systems and depend strongly on the assumptions that the environment of a typical system is fixed and known in detail to the quality-assurance team at test and evaluation time. This paper outlines new approaches to quality assurance and testing that are better suited for providing affordable reliability in open architectures, and explains some of the additional technical features that an Open Architecture must have in order to become a Dependable Open Architecture.Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research ProgramApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited
Formal Verification of Probabilistic SystemC Models with Statistical Model Checking
Transaction-level modeling with SystemC has been very successful in
describing the behavior of embedded systems by providing high-level executable
models, in which many of them have inherent probabilistic behaviors, e.g.,
random data and unreliable components. It thus is crucial to have both
quantitative and qualitative analysis of the probabilities of system
properties. Such analysis can be conducted by constructing a formal model of
the system under verification and using Probabilistic Model Checking (PMC).
However, this method is infeasible for large systems, due to the state space
explosion. In this article, we demonstrate the successful use of Statistical
Model Checking (SMC) to carry out such analysis directly from large SystemC
models and allow designers to express a wide range of useful properties. The
first contribution of this work is a framework to verify properties expressed
in Bounded Linear Temporal Logic (BLTL) for SystemC models with both timed and
probabilistic characteristics. Second, the framework allows users to expose a
rich set of user-code primitives as atomic propositions in BLTL. Moreover,
users can define their own fine-grained time resolution rather than the
boundary of clock cycles in the SystemC simulation. The third contribution is
an implementation of a statistical model checker. It contains an automatic
monitor generation for producing execution traces of the
model-under-verification (MUV), the mechanism for automatically instrumenting
the MUV, and the interaction with statistical model checking algorithms.Comment: Journal of Software: Evolution and Process. Wiley, 2017. arXiv admin
note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1507.0818
SAVCBS 2004 Specification and Verification of Component-Based Systems: Workshop Proceedings
This is the proceedings of the 2004 SAVCBS workshop. The workshop is concerned with how formal (i.e., mathematical) techniques can be or should be used to establish a suitable foundation for the specification and verification of component-based systems. Component-based systems are a growing concern for the software engineering community. Specification and reasoning techniques are urgently needed to permit composition of systems from components. Component-based specification and verification is also vital for scaling advanced verification techniques such as extended static analysis and model checking to the size of real systems. The workshop considers formalization of both functional and non-functional behavior, such as performance or reliability
Dependability Analysis of Control Systems using SystemC and Statistical Model Checking
Stochastic Petri nets are commonly used for modeling distributed systems in
order to study their performance and dependability. This paper proposes a
realization of stochastic Petri nets in SystemC for modeling large embedded
control systems. Then statistical model checking is used to analyze the
dependability of the constructed model. Our verification framework allows users
to express a wide range of useful properties to be verified which is
illustrated through a case study
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Using formal methods to support testing
Formal methods and testing are two important approaches that assist in the development of high quality software. While traditionally these approaches have been seen as rivals, in recent
years a new consensus has developed in which they are seen as complementary. This article reviews the state of the art regarding ways in which the presence of a formal specification can be used to assist testing
Functional Requirements-Based Automated Testing for Avionics
We propose and demonstrate a method for the reduction of testing effort in
safety-critical software development using DO-178 guidance. We achieve this
through the application of Bounded Model Checking (BMC) to formal low-level
requirements, in order to generate tests automatically that are good enough to
replace existing labor-intensive test writing procedures while maintaining
independence from implementation artefacts. Given that existing manual
processes are often empirical and subjective, we begin by formally defining a
metric, which extends recognized best practice from code coverage analysis
strategies to generate tests that adequately cover the requirements. We then
formulate the automated test generation procedure and apply its prototype in
case studies with industrial partners. In review, the method developed here is
demonstrated to significantly reduce the human effort for the qualification of
software products under DO-178 guidance
Assisted coverage closure
Malfunction of safety-critical systems may cause damage to people and the environment. Software within those systems is rigorously designed and verified according to domain specific guidance, such as ISO26262 for automotive safety. This paper describes academic and industrial co-operation in tool development to support one of the most stringent of the requirements --- achieving full code coverage in requirements-driven testing.
We present a verification workflow supported by a tool that integrates the coverage measurement tool RapiCover with the test-vector generator FShell. The tool assists closing the coverage gap by providing the engineer with test vectors that help in debugging coverage-related code quality issues and creating new test cases, as well as justifying the presence of unreachable parts of the code in order to finally achieve full effective coverage according to the required criteria. We illustrate the tool's practical utility on automotive industry benchmarks. It generates 8 times more MC/DC coverage than random search
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