Model Checking a Video–on–Demand Server Using McErlang

Abstract

The article describes a method to obtain performance measurements from complex distributed systems using a model checking approach. We illustrate the approach by applying it to a Video–on–Demand application developed in Erlang. To obtain performance measurements concerning e.g. streaming capacity, and identify system bottlenecks, we used the McErlang model checker which implements a large part of the Erlang API. Answers to capacity queries are computed as measures over paths in the system state graph, and the combination of an on-the-fly model checker (not requiring the generation of the complete state graph) with a powerful language (Erlang itself) for expressing correctness claims, made it possible to analyse substantially sized systems.