A Formal Approach for the Design of Real-Time Distributed Systems

Abstract : Real-time distributed systems are the backbone of the U.S. Air Force computational infrastructure. The inherent complexity of these systems and their mission-critical nature present a difficult engineering challenge at every point in the lifecycle. This research is to lay a foundation for a systematic engineering methodology. In particular, our effort consists of two inter-related aspects. The first is to develop a scalable and flexible model and techniques for representing and analyzing distributed real-time architectures; and the second is to extend our previous work in automatic (correctness-preserving) transformations. The first part will proceed by integrating aspects of Petri net theory with a generalized object model to obtain a coherent formal approach to architectural representation. The second attacks the problems of scalability and excessive manual labor in the use of formal methods. In this final report, we summarize the results and accomplishments of our research based on the above two aspects of this effort.