This article introduces a fully automated verification technique that permits
to analyze real-time systems described using a continuous notion of time and a
mixture of operational (i.e., automata-based) and descriptive (i.e.,
logic-based) formalisms. The technique relies on the reduction, under
reasonable assumptions, of the continuous-time verification problem to its
discrete-time counterpart. This reconciles in a viable and effective way the
dense/discrete and operational/descriptive dichotomies that are often
encountered in practice when it comes to specifying and analyzing complex
critical systems. The article investigates the applicability of the technique
through a significant example centered on a communication protocol. More
precisely, concurrent runs of the protocol are formalized by parallel instances
of a Timed Automaton, while the synchronization rules between these instances
are specified through Metric Temporal Logic formulas, thus creating a
multi-paradigm model. Verification tests run on this model using a bounded
validity checker implementing the technique show consistent results and
interesting performances.Comment: 33 pages; fixed a few typos and added data to Table