Coupling of timing properties for embedded realtime systems using a hybrid tool integration approach

The increasing complexity of realtime embedded software systems necessitates them to support a variety of functions. Therefore, a practice is to split the overall system into different sub-systems and use various (modeling) tools for describing different parts of the system. On the other hand, though guaranteeing realtime properties forms an integral part of realtime embedded software development, it is often overlooked during system specification. Thereby, much effort is needed to solve timing problems, when they occur after implementing a system. Therefore, it is desirable to specify and validate timing properties during early development stages. As different parts of an overall system can be developed using various tools, elements which influence the timing behavior can be located in different sources. In order to analyze the overall timing behavior with a timing validation tool, all timing properties of the overall system are needed. Therefore, this paper presents an approach to couple timing properties from different sources. The approach allows to create links between elements across different sources and to synchronize timing properties. Thereby, timing properties can be followed, kept consistent and combined to be validated.