Evaluating the Correctness and Effectiveness of a Middleware QoS Configuration Process in Distributed Real-Time and Embedded Systems

Recent advances in software processes and artifacts for automating middleware configurations in distributed realtime and embedded (DRE) systems are starting to address the complexities faced by system developers in dealing with the flexibility and configurability provided by contemporary middleware. Despite the benefits of these new processes, there remain significant challenges in verifying their correctness, and validating their effectiveness in meeting the end-to-end quality of service (QoS) requirements of DRE systems. This paper addresses this problem by describing how model-checking and structural correspondence can be used to verify the correctness of a middleware QoS configuration process that uses model-based graph transformations at its core. Next, it provides empirical proof to validate the effectiveness of our technique to meet the end-to-end QoS requirements in the context of a representative DRE system.