Efficient Performance Models in Component-Based Software Engineering

Performance evaluation of component-based software systems should be performed as early as possible during the software development life cycle. Unfortunately, a detailed quantitative analysis is often not possible during such stages, as only the system outline is available, with very little quantitative knowledge. In this paper we propose an approach based on queueing network analysis for performance evaluation of component-based software systems at the software architectural level. Our approach provides performance bounds which can be efficiently computed. Starting from annotated UML diagrams we compute bounds on the system throughput and response time without explicitly deriving or solving the underlying multichain and multiclass queueing network model. We illustrate with an example how the technique can be applied to answer many performance-related questions which may arise during the software design phase