Validating real-time systems by history-checking TRIO specifications

Abstract

We emphasize the importance of formal executable specifications in the development of real-time systems, as a means to assess the adequacy of the requirements before a costly development process takes place. TRIO is a first-order temporal logic language for executable specification of real-time systems that deals with time in a quantitative way by providing a metric to indicate distance in time between events and length of time intervals. We summarize the language and its model-parametric semantics. Then we present an algorithm to perform history checking, i.e., to check that a history of the system satisfies the specification. This algorithm can be used as a basis for an effective specification testing tool. The algorithm is described; an estimation of its complexity is provided; and the main functionalities of the tool are presented, together with sample test cases. Finally, we draw conclusions and indicate directions of future research.