A new approach to system and software architecture specification based on behavior models
Authors
Auguston, Mikhail
Whitcomb, Clifford
Giammarco, Kristin
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2012-10-10
Date
Publisher
Language
en_US
Abstract
This paper suggests a new approach to formal system and software architecture specification based on behavior models. The behavior of the system is defined as a set of events (event trace) with two basic relations: precedence and inclusion. The structure of an event trace is specified using event grammars and other constraints organized into schemas. Graphical and predicate calculus expressions are used to present the grammar and illustrate some simple examples. The framework provides high level abstractions for analyzing system behavior properties expressed as computations over event traces. The automated tools can support extracting of different views from the model, and verification of behavior properties within a given scope. Advantages of this approach compared with those used by the common simulation tools are as follows.
• Provides a means to write assertions about the system behavior and tools to verify those assertions.
• Performs exhaustive search through all possible scenarios (up to the scope limit). The small scope hypothesis states that most errors can be demonstrated on small examples.
• Provides support for verifiable refinement of the architecture model, up to design and implementation models.
• Allows integration of the architecture models with environment models for defining typical scenarios (use cases) and verifying the system’s behavior for those scenarios.
Type
Article
Description
Series/Report No
Department
Systems Engineering