Modelling and simulation of asynchronous real-time systems using Timed Rebeca

Abstract

In this paper we propose Timed Rebeca as an extension of the Rebeca language that can be used to model distributed and asynchronous systems with timing constraints. Timed Rebeca restricts the modeller to a pure asynchronous actor-based paradigm, where the structure of the model represents the service oriented architecture, while the computational model matches the network infrastructure. The modeller can specify both computational and network delay, and assign deadlines for serving a request. We provide the formal semantics of the language using Structural Operational Semantics, and show its expressiveness by means of examples. We developed a tool for automated translation from Timed Rebeca to the Erlang language, which provides a first implementation of Timed Rebeca. We can use the tool to set the parameters of Timed Rebeca models, which represent the environment and component variables, and use McErlang to run multiple simulations for different settings. The results of the simulations can then be employed to select the most appropriate values for the parameters in the model. Simulation is shown to be an effective analysis support, specially where model checking faces almost immediate state explosion in an asynchronous setting. • Timed Rebeca as an actor-based modelling language extended with time constraints. • The formal semantics of Timed Rebeca using Structural Operational Semantics (SOS). • A tool for mapping Timed Rebeca models to Erlang. • Examples of applications of Timed Rebeca to different small and medium sized case studies. • Experimental results from the simulation of the resulting Timed Rebeca models using McErlang.