Validation of Dependable Real-time Protocols : A Case for the Use of Formal Techniques

A traditional use of formal methods is for correctness checking or veriication. Given the limitations in state space coverage provided by conventional validation techniques (and the cost/time needed for testing), we introduce a novel approach to extend the use of formal veriication procedures to aid fault injection based validation of dependable and real-time protocols. A key feature in fault-injection based validation is identifying the relevant test cases to inject. This problem is exacerbated at the protocol level where the lack of detailed fault distributions limits the use of statistical approaches in deriving and estimating the number of test cases to inject. In this paper we develop mechanisms for representation of information generated through formal processes , as well as a formal framework that facilitates the formulation of speciic fault injection experiments for validation. Furthermore, we demonstrate the viability of our proposed formal fault injection approach to protocol validation, where the deductive and computational analysis capabilities of formal methods are shown to be able to identify very speciic fault injection test cases, and analytically identify equivalence classes of test cases.

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