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Effective Test Suite Design for Detecting Concurrency Control Faults in Distributed Transaction Systems

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Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation. Distributed Systems (ISoLA 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 11246))

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Abstract

Concurrency control faults may lead to unwanted interleavings, and breach data consistency in distributed transaction systems. However, due to the unpredictable delays between sites, detecting concurrency control faults in distributed transaction systems is difficult. In this paper, we propose a methodology, relying on model-based testing and mutation testing, for designing test cases in order to detect such faults. The generated test inputs are designated delays between distributed operations, while the outputs are the occurrence of unwanted interleavings that are consequences of the concurrency control faults. We mutate the distributed transaction specification with common concurrency control faults, and model them as UPPAAL timed automata, in which designated delays are encoded as stopwatches. Test cases are generated via reachability analysis using UPPAAL Model Checker, and are selected to form an effective test suite. Our methodology can reduce redundant test cases, and find the appropriate delays to detect concurrency control faults effectively.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We used the online Z3 tool provided by Microsoft (https://rise4fun.com/z3) in this running example. The time to resolve the constraints was less than one second.

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Acknowledgment

The Swedish Research Council (VR) is gratefully acknowledged for supporting this research by the project “Adequacy-based Testing of Extra-Functional Properties of Embedded Systems”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden

    Simin Cai, Barbara Gallina, Dag Nyström & Cristina Seceleanu

Authors
  1. Simin Cai
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  2. Barbara Gallina
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  3. Dag Nyström
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  4. Cristina Seceleanu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simin Cai .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

    Tiziana Margaria

  2. TU Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany

    Bernhard Steffen

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Cai, S., Gallina, B., Nyström, D., Seceleanu, C. (2018). Effective Test Suite Design for Detecting Concurrency Control Faults in Distributed Transaction Systems. In: Margaria, T., Steffen, B. (eds) Leveraging Applications of Formal Methods, Verification and Validation. Distributed Systems. ISoLA 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11246. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03424-5_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03424-5_24

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03423-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03424-5

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