Safety-critical systems require high quality and dependability levels, where system correctness and safety are major features to avoid any severe outcome. Time and cost are also important challenges that are imposed during the development process. Describing the behavior of a system in a high level provides a realistic vision and anticipation of the system. This presents a valuable opportunity for verifying the system before wasting the intended resources to develop the system. Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) provide the ability to comprise and represent the system level details of components, interactions and configuration. Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) as a family member of ADLs proved its effectiveness in designing software intensive systems. In this report, we present a case study to validate “An Architecture-Based Verification Technique for AADL Specifications”. The technique involves a combination of model checking and model-based testing approaches adapted to an architectural perspective. The objectives of the verification process are 1) to ensure completeness and consistency of an AADL specification, and 2) to ensure conformance of an implementation with respect to its AADL specification. The technique has only been applied to small examples, and the goal of this thesis work is to validate it against a safety-critical system developed by a major vehicle manufacturer. Validation of the technique begins by investigating the system and specifying it in AADL. The defined verification criteria are subsequently applied to the AADL specification which drives the verification process. The case study presents interesting results while performing the model checking (the completeness and consistency checking). Conformance testing, on the other hand, could not be performed on the implemented system but is an interesting topic for future work.

<p>Development of software-intensive systems such as embedded systems for telecommunications, avionics and automotives occurs under severe quality, schedule and budget constraints. As the size and complexity of software-intensive systems increase dramatically, the problems originating from the design and specification of the system architecture becomes increasingly significant. Architecture-based development approaches promise to improve the efficiency of software-intensive system development processes by reducing costs and time, while increasing quality. This paradox is partially explained by the fact that the system architecture abstracts away unnecessary details, so that developers can concentrate both on the system as a whole, and on its individual pieces, whether it's the components, the components' interfaces, or connections among components. The use of architecture description languages (ADLs) provides an important basis for verification since it describes how the system should behave, in a high level view and in a form where automated tests can be generated. Analysis and testing based on architecture specifications allow detection of problems and faults early in the development process, even before the implementation phase, thereby reducing a significant amount of costs and time. Furthermore, tests derived from the architecture specification can later be applied to the implementation to see the conformance of the implementation with respect to the specification. This thesis extends the knowledge base in the area of architecture-based verification. In this thesis report, an airplane control system is specified using the Architecture Analysis and Description Language (AADL). This specification will serve as a starting point of a system development process where developed architecture-based verification algorithms are applied.</p>

Development of software-intensive systems such as embedded systems for telecommunications, avionics and automotives occurs under severe quality, schedule and budget constraints. As the size and complexity of software-intensive systems increase dramatically, the problems originating from the design and specification of the system architecture becomes increasingly significant. Architecture-based development approaches promise to improve the efficiency of software-intensive system development processes by reducing costs and time, while increasing quality. This paradox is partially explained by the fact that the system architecture abstracts away unnecessary details, so that developers can concentrate both on the system as a whole, and on its individual pieces, whether it's the components, the components' interfaces, or connections among components. The use of architecture description languages (ADLs) provides an important basis for verification since it describes how the system should behave, in a high level view and in a form where automated tests can be generated. Analysis and testing based on architecture specifications allow detection of problems and faults early in the development process, even before the implementation phase, thereby reducing a significant amount of costs and time. Furthermore, tests derived from the architecture specification can later be applied to the implementation to see the conformance of the implementation with respect to the specification. This thesis extends the knowledge base in the area of architecture-based verification. In this thesis report, an airplane control system is specified using the Architecture Analysis and Description Language (AADL). This specification will serve as a starting point of a system development process where developed architecture-based verification algorithms are applied.