A New UML Profile for Real-Time System Formal Design and Validation

Abstract

UML solutions in competition on the real-time system market share three common drawbacks: an incomplete formal semantics, temporal operators with limited expression and analysis power, and implementation-oriented tools with limited verification capabilities. To overcome these limitations, the paper proposes a UML profile designed with real-time system validation in mind. Extended class diagrams with associations attributed by composition operators give an explicit semantics to associations between classes. Enhanced activity diagrams with a deterministic delay, a non deterministic delay and a timelimited offering make it possible to work with temporal intervals in lieu of timers with fixed duration. The UML profile is given a precise semantics via its translation into the Formal Description Technique RT-LOTOS. A RT-LOTOS validation tool generates simulation chronograms and reachability graphs for RT-LOTOS specifications derived from UML class and activity diagrams. A coffee machine serves as example. The proposed profile is under evaluation on a satellite-based software reconfiguration system.KeywordsComposition OperatorClass DiagramActivity DiagramParallel CompositionObject Management GroupThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.