Scenario-Based Performance Evaluation of SDL/MSC-Specified Systems

Abstract

The standardised languages SDL (Specification and Description Language) and MSC (Message Sequence Chart) are very popular in the field of telecommunications, since they support all essential steps in the protocol life cycle. With SDL the protocol behaviour is completely specified by communicating extended finite-state machines. The formal basis of SDL enables the use of code generation tool chains, which allows an automated implementation of the specification. With MSC the communication between processes is described by example. Since telecommunication systems are real time systems, functional and performance aspects must be closely integrated into the development process. Our approach for an early performance prediction is based on scenarios given in MSCs extended with quantitative data. The scenarios are automatically transformed to an SDL specification which yields a prototype implementation via a code generation tool chain. The resulting implementation is executed on the target machines. By monitoring this system, various performance characteristics can be gained, such as processor load, channel utilisation or response time. This allows an early performance prediction for the given scenarios in a system environment which integrates the target hardware and system software in a realistic way.