Abstract
Software systems are complicated, and the scientific and engineering methodologies for software development are relatively young. We need robust methods for handling the ever-increasing complexity of software systems that are now in every corner of our lives. In this paper we focus on asynchronous event-based reactive systems and show how we start from the requirements, move to actor-based Rebeca models, and formally verify the models for correctness. The Rebeca models include the details of the signals and messages that are passed at the network level including the timing, and can be mapped to the executable code. We show how we can use the architecture design and structured requirements to build the behavioral models, including Rebeca models, and use the state diagrams to write the properties of interest, and then use model checking to check the properties. The formally verified models can then be used to develop the executable code. The natural mappings among the models for requirements, the formal models, and the executable code improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the approach. It also helps in runtime monitoring and adaptation.
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Notes
- 1.
We use this format based on the experience of the second author of the paper who worked for seven years as requirements manager in industry.
- 2.
The TCTL model checking tool for Timed Rebeca is not yet integrated in the Eclipse tool suite of Afra.
- 3.
A different design for the model, derived from a different allocation of functions in the architecture, can be modeled and model checked. More explanation will be in Sect. 7.
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Acknowledgment
We would like to thank Edward Lee for reading the paper and giving us very useful comments. The research of the first three authors for this work is supported by the Serendipity project funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF). The research of the first two authors is also supported by the DPAC project funded by the Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen). The research of the fourth author is funded partially by Vinnova through the ITEA3 TESTOMAT and XIVT projects.
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Sirjani, M., Provenzano, L., Abbaspour Asadollah, S., Moghadam, M.H. (2021). From Requirements to Verifiable Executable Models Using Rebeca. In: Cleophas, L., Massink, M. (eds) Software Engineering and Formal Methods. SEFM 2020 Collocated Workshops. SEFM 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12524. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67220-1_6
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