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Test Reactive Systems with Büchi-Automaton-Based Temporal Requirements

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Theoretical Information Reuse and Integration

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 446))

Abstract

A reactive system is expected to interact with its environment constantly, and its executions may be modeled as infinite words. To capture temporal requirements for a reactive system, Büchi automaton has been used as a formalism to model and specify temporal patterns of infinite executions of the system. A key feature of a Büchi automaton is its ability of accepting infinite words through its acceptance condition. In this paper, we propose a specification-based technique that tests a reactive system with respect to its requirements in Büchi automaton. Our technique selects test suites based on their relevancy to the acceptance condition of a Büchi automaton. By focusing the testing efforts on this key element of a Büchi automaton that is responsible for accepting infinite words, we are able to build a testing process driven by the Büchi automaton specified temporal properties of a reactive system. At the core of our approach are new coverage metrics for measuring how well a test suite covers the acceptance condition of a Büchi automaton. We propose both weak and strong variants of coverage metrics for applications that need tests of different strengths. Each variant incorporates a model-checking-assisted algorithm that automates test case generation. Furthermore our testing technique is capable of revealing not only bugs in a system, but also problems in its requirements. By collecting and analyzing the information produced by a model-checking-assisted test case generation algorithm, our approach may identify inadequate requirements. We also propose an algorithm that refines a requirement in Büchi automaton. Finally, we conduct a thorough computational study to evaluate the performance of our proposed criteria using cross-coverage comparison and fault sensitivity analysis. The results validate the strength of our approach on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of testing, with test cases generated specifically for temporal requirements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Washington State University, Richland, WA, 99354, USA

    Bolong Zeng & Li Tan

Authors
  1. Bolong Zeng
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  2. Li Tan
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Correspondence to Li Tan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. d'Informatique, Ecole Nationale Supérieure, Alger, Algeria

    Thouraya Bouabana-Tebibel

  2. Code 71730, BS, SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific, San Diego, California, USA

    Stuart H. Rubin

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Zeng, B., Tan, L. (2016). Test Reactive Systems with Büchi-Automaton-Based Temporal Requirements. In: Bouabana-Tebibel, T., Rubin, S. (eds) Theoretical Information Reuse and Integration. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 446. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31311-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31311-5_2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31309-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31311-5

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