Automatic generation of tests for timing constraints from requirements

The authors present a framework for testing timing constraints of real-time systems. The tests are automatically derived from specifications of minimum and maximum allowable delays between input/output events in the execution of a system. The test derivation scheme uses a graphical specification formalism for timing constraints, and the real-time process algebra Algebra of Communicating Shared Resources (ACSR) for representing tests and process models. The use of ACSR to describe test sequences has two main advantages. First, tests can be applied to an ACSR model of the software system within the ACSR semantic framework for model validation purposes. Second, ACSR has concise notation and a precise semantics that will facilitate the translation of real-time tests into a software test language for software validation purposes.