Modelling and analysis of a commercial field bus protocol

We report on an industrial application of UPPAAL, in which a commercial field bus protocol (AF100) is modelled and analysed using the tool. During the case study, a number of imperfections in the protocol logic and its implementation are found and the error sources are debugged based on abstract models of the protocol; respective improvements have been suggested. The authors summarize their experiences in dealing with the complexity of the protocol using various modelling and abstraction features provided in UPPAAL. As an example, they study the bus coupler of AF100, which serves as the data link layer of the protocol.