Schedulability analysis of multi-processor real-time systems using Uppaal

Multi-processor execution platforms are being more and more commonly adopted in various real-time systems. In some systems, real-time tasks are generated at runtime to be executed under time constrains, e.g. interruptions triggered by events should be handled preemptively within their deadlines. Besides some other system verifications, checking whether all the real-time tasks can be finished within their deadlines, i.e. schedulability analysis is a very critical step in the design phase. In this paper, we break down a typical multi-processor real-time system into the follwing modules: the hardware environment, the task system, and the multi-processor execution platform. Then we develop a general model capturing the independent and interactive behaviors of these modules by modeling them as timed automata using the model-checking tool Uppaal, which enables us to perform formal verifications and schedulability analysis under one framework. We present verification results on small systems with a fairly small number of tasks and processors and it proves a general and flexible model which system designers can customize according to a certain system specification.