Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

On a time enriched OCL liveness template

  • Special Section on Specification and Validation of Models of Real Time and Embedded Systems with UML
  • Published:
International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

It is increasingly recognised that non-functional requirements should be considered at the earliest stages of system development. Unified modelling language (UML), as a standard, should therefore include notation to capture such requirements. Among these, timing has received considerable attention by the modelling community with several timed extensions of UML diagrams, a UML profile and tools. However, timing constraints are, generally, not captured in a satisfactory way during design. We propose to use UML's object constraint language (OCL) for this purpose, and provide a simple time enriched liveness template for OCL. We describe the benefits of using this template.

Having verification in mind, several logic-based formalisms could be chosen to underly OCL. We consider a novel real-time logic of knowledge, and argue why logics of knowledge are useful and promising in this context. We illustrate our approach with a distributed real-time system. Future work and further benefits of the knowledge-based framework are discussed at the end of the paper.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Alur, R.: Timed automata. In: 11th International Conference on Computer-Aided Verification, LNCS, vol. 1633, pp. 8–22. Springer (1999)

  2. Alur, R., Henzinger, T.: Logics and models of real time: A survey. In: de Bakker, J., Huizing, K., de Roever, W.-P., Rozenberg, G. (eds.), Real time: Theory and practice, LNCS, vol. 600, pp. 74–106. Springer (1992)

  3. Benerecetti, M., Spalazzi, L., Tacconi, S.: Verification of the SSL/TLS protocol using a model checkable logic of belief and time. In: Anderson, S., Bologna, S., Felici, M. (eds.), Proceedings of SAFECOMP'02, LNCS, vol. 2434, pp. 126–138. Springer (2002)

  4. Bradfield, J., Küster-Filipe, J., Stevens, P.: Enriching OCL using observational mu-calculus. In: Kutsche, R.-D., Weber, H. (eds.), In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering (FASE), Grenoble, France, April 2002, LNCS, vol. 2306, pp. 203–217. Springer (2002)

  5. Burns, A., Wellings, A.: Real-time systems: Specification, verification and analysis. In: Advanced Fixed Priority Schedulling, pp. 32–65. Prentice-Hall (1996)

  6. Cengarle, M., Knapp, A.: Towards OCL/RT. In: Eriksson, L.-H., Lindsay, P. (eds.), Formal Methods—Getting IT Right, International Symposium on Formal Methods Europe, LNCS, vol. 2391, pp. 389–408. Springer (2002)

  7. Conrad, S., Turowski, K.: Temporal OCL: Meeting specifications demands for business components. In: Siau, K., Halpin, T. (eds.), Unified Modeling Language: Systems Analysis, Design, and Development Issues, pp. 151–165. IDEA Group Publishing (2001)

  8. Douglass, B.P.: Doing Hard Time: Developing Real-Time Systems with UML, Objects, Frameworks, and Patterns. Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA, USA (1999)

  9. Firley, T., Huhn, M., Diethers, K., Gehrke, T., Goltz, U.: Timed sequence diagrams and tool-based analysis—a case study. In: The Second International Conference on The Unified Modeling Language, Beyond the Standard (UML'99), LNCS, vol. 1723, pp. 645–660. Springer (October 1999)

  10. Flake, S., Mueller, W.: An OCL extension for real-time constraints. In: Clark, T., Warmer, J. (eds.), Object Modeling with the OCL, LNCS, vol. 2263, pp. 150–171. Springer (2002)

  11. Flake, S., Mueller, W.: Formal semantics of static and temporal state-oriented OCL constraints. Softw. Syst. Model. 2(3), 164–186 (October 2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Graf, S., Ober, I., Ober, Iu.: Timed annotations with UML. In: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Specification and Validation of UML models for Real Time and Embedded Systems (SVERTS 2003) (2003)

  13. Halpern, J.Y., Vardi, M.Y.: The complexity of reasoning about knowledge and time, i: lower bounds. J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 38(1), 195–237 (1989)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Halpern, J.Y.: Reasoning about uncertainty. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (2003)

  15. Harel, D., Marelly, R.: Playing with Time: On the Specification and Execution of Time-Enriched LSCs. In: 10th IEEE International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation of Computer and Telecommunications Systems (MASCOTS'02) October 11–16, 2002, Fort Worth, Texas, pp. 193–202 (2002)

  16. Harel, D., Marelly, R.: Come, Let's Play: Scenario-based Programming Using LSCs and the Play-Engine. Springer, New York, USA (2003)

  17. Klein, M.H., Ralya, T., Pollack, B., Obenza, R., Harbour, M.G.: A Practitioner's Handbook for Real-Time Analysis. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, MA, USA (1993)

  18. Kleppe, A., Warmer, J.: Extending OCL to include actions. In: Kent, S., Evans, A. (eds.), UML'2000—The Unified Modeling Language: Advancing the Standard, Third International Conference, York, UK, October 2–6, 2000, volume 1939 of LNCS, pp. 440–450. Springer (2000)

  19. Knapp, A., Merz, S., Rauh, C.: Model checking timed UML state machines and collaborations. In: Proceedings of 7th International Symposium on Formal Techniques in Real-Time and Fault Tolerant Systems, LNCS, vol. 2469, pp. 395–416. Springer (2002)

  20. Küster-Filipe, J., Anderson, S.: Using OCL for expressing temporal validity constraints. In: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Specification and Validation of UML models for Real Time and Embedded Systems (SVERTS 2003) (2003)

  21. Larsen, K., Pettersson, P., Yi, W.: UPPAAL in a nutshell. Int. J. Softw. Tools Technol. Transf. 1(1–2):134–152, (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  22. OMG: UML Profile for Modelling Quality of Service and Fault Tolerance Characteristics and Mechanisms, August 2002. Initial submission, available to members at www.omg.org

  23. OMG: UML 2.0 OCL Specification. OMG Adopted Specification, document ad/03-10-14, available at www.uml.org (2003)

  24. OMG: UML 2.0 Superstructure Draft Adopted Specification. OMG document ptc/03-08-02, available at http://www.uml.org (August 2003)

  25. OMG: Unified Modeling Language Specification version 1.5 (March 2003) OMG document available at http://www.omg.org

  26. OMG: UML Profile for Schedulability, Performance and Time, version 1.1, January 2005. OMG document available at http://www.omg.org

  27. Ramakrishnan, S., McGregor, J.: Extending OCL to support temporal operators. In: Ulrich, A. (ed.), ICSE'99 Workshop on Testing Distributed Component-based Systems, Los Angeles, California, USA (May 1999)

  28. Saksena, M.: Real-time systems design: A temporal perspective. In: Proceedings of the IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (May 1998)

  29. Segala, R., Gawlick, R., Søgaard-Andersen J., Lynch, N.: Liveness in timed and untimed systems. In: Proceedings of ICALP'94, LNCS, vol. 820, pp. 166–177 (1994)

  30. Ziemann, P., Gogolla, M.: An OCL extension for formulating temporal constraints. Technical Report 1/03, Fachbereich Mathematik und Informatik, Universität Bremen, Germany (2003)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

    Juliana Küster-Filipe

  2. LFCS, School of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, The King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, Scotland

    Stuart Anderson

Authors
  1. Juliana Küster-Filipe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Stuart Anderson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juliana Küster-Filipe.

Additional information

Work reported here was supported by the EPSRC grants GR/R16891 and GR/N13999.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Küster-Filipe, J., Anderson, S. On a time enriched OCL liveness template. Int J Softw Tools Technol Transfer 8, 156–166 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-005-0210-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-005-0210-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation