Monitoring And Debugging Of Distributed Real Time Systems

Monitoring and Debugging of Distributed Real-time Systems

The Testability of Distributed Real-Time Systems

BY H. KOPETZ A real-time computer system must provide the intended service in two di mensions: the functional (value) dimension and the temporal dimension. The verification of a real-time system implementation is thus necessarily more com plex than the verification of a non-real-time system which has to be checked in the value dimension only. Since the formal verification techniques of temporal properties have not yet matured to the point where these techniques can be used in practical system development, systematic design and testing are the only alternatives for the development of dependable real-time systems. At present, up to and more than fifty percent of the development eff'ort of complex real-time computer systems is spent on testing. The test activities are thus a significant cost element in any real-time system project. The attack on this cost element has to proceed from two fronts: the design for testability and the development of a systematic test methodology supported by an appropriate tool set. This book covers both of these topics.

Distributed Real-Time Systems

Distributed real-time systems (DRTSs) are used in a wide range of applications, including command and control systems, flight control systems, robotics, patient monitoring systems, and many others. This volume provides an overview of various systematic approaches to the testing and debugging of DRTSs—tasks that typically consume 50% to 70% of a new system's development costs. Distributed Real-Time Systems covers both the theoretical and practical issues involved in monitoring, visualization, and analysis methodology for verifying and debugging DRTSs. It describes in detail how to overcome timing verification difficulties and improve system performance and reliability. Complete with many carefully worked-out examples, as well as dozens of illustrations, this timely and accessible work Explains real-world debugging approaches—proposed or tested—using static analysis or dynamic analysis with or without monitoring Features step-by-step instructions for design implementation in hardware and software, detecting timing errors and their causes, graphical debugging methods, and more Covers numerous analytical techniques, including timed Petri nets, temporal logic, timed state transition systems, timed process algebra, and synchronous programming languages Makes distributed systems analysis accessible through examples such as a distributed telephone switching system and a fault-tolerant distributed system Reviews many relevant professional papers and current research work The joint product of four leaders in the field, Distributed Real-Time Systems is an important text and reference for electrical and software engineers, graduate students, and anyone involved in computer and data processing technology.