Distributed Implementations of Timed Component-based Systems

Overview & Synopsis

Correct distributed implementation of real-time systems has always been a challenging task. The coordination of components executing on a distributed platform has to be ensured by complex communication protocols taking into account their timing constraints. In this thesis, we propose rigorous design flow starting from a high-level model of an application software in BIP (Behavior, Interaction, Priority) and leading to a distributed implementation. The design flow involves the use of model transformations while preserving the functional properties of the original BIP models. A BIP model consists of a set of components synchronizing through multiparty interactions and priorities. Our method transforms high-level BIP models into Send/Receive models that operate using asynchronous message passing. The obtained models are directly implementable on a given platform. We present three solutions for obtaining Send/Receive BIP models. -In the first solution, we propose Send/Receive models with a centralized scheduler that implements interactions and priorities. Atomic components of the original models are transformed into Send/Receive components that communicate with the centralized scheduler via Send/Receive interactions. The centralized scheduler is required to schedule interactions under some conditions defined by partial state models. Those models represent high-level representation of parallel execution of BIP models. - In the second solution, we propose to decentralize the scheduler. The obtained Send/Receive models are structured in 3 layers: (1) Send/Receive atomic components, (2) a set of schedulers each one handling a subset of interactions, and (3) a set of components implementing a conflict resolution protocol. With the above solutions, we assume that the obtained Send/Receive models are implemented on platforms that provide fast communications (e.g. multi-process platforms) to meet perfect synchronization in components. This is because the obtained schedulers are modeled such that interactions scheduling corresponds exactly to execution in components. - In the third solution, we propose Send/Receive models that execute correctly even if communications are not fast enough. This solution is based on the fact that schedulers plan interactions execution and notify components in advance. In order to plan correctly the interactions, we show that the schedulers are required to observe additional components, in addition to the ones participating in the interactions. We present also a method to optimize the number of observed components, based on the use of static analysis techniques. From a given Send/Receive model, we generate a distributed implementation where Send/Receive interactions are implemented by TCP sockets. The experimental results on non trivial examples and case studies show the efficiency of our design flow.