Testing Temporal Logic Properties in Distributed Systems

Abstract

Based on the notion of event-based behavioral abstraction (EBBA) we specify properties of object-oriented distributed systems in linear time temporal logic. These properties are then observed at system run-time and it is checked whether or not the system violates the specified behavioral constraints. In our approach, several steps in the testing process can be automized: instrumenting the source code, constructing test-oracles and generating an observer. Taking an industrial example as basis, we discuss how our proposal can be integrated into the software design-and testing process.

Local Model-Checking of Modal Mu-Calculus on Acyclic Labeled Transition Systems

“…Although model-checking has been mainly used for verifying concurrent systems (communication protocols, distributed applications, hardware architectures), the underlying techniques and algorithms are useful in other contexts as well. In particular, several problems related to the analysis of sequential systems can be formulated as model-checking problems on single trace Ltss: intrusion detection by auditing of log file information, as in the Ustat rule-based expert system [13], in which security properties of log files are encoded as state transition diagrams; trace analysis for program debugging, as in the Opium trace analyzer for Prolog [8], which uses a dedicated language for describing trace queries; and run-time monitoring by observation of event traces in real-time, as in the Motel monitoring system [6], which uses Ltl [19] for expressing test requirements and for synthesizing observers. It appears that, when analyzing sequential systems, existing modal-checking algorithms can be optimized significantly, especially by reducing their memory consumption, which is crucial for scaling up to larger systems.…”

Integration of Functional and Timed Testing of Real-Time and Concurrent Systems

“…One of the possible causes of this situation is the wide gap between timed automata formalism and formalisms of programming languages used by typical developers. The same gap is inherent to the approaches based on various kinds of temporal logics [7,8], although some commercial tools based on temporal logics are available (see [9]).…”