Relative-clock-based specification and test result analysis of distributed systems

A model employing totally ordered events of a distributed system based on a logical clock has been presented by L. Lamport (1978). The authors propose a new interpretation and extension of Lamport's notion of concurrency by introducing the concept of relative concurrency to capture the nature of concurrency of distributed systems by means of a relative (or logical) clock. They then derive a totally ordered global events model based on the relative clock. Based on this model, they represent and interpret timing (ordering) information from observable scenarios, including collision scenarios of the system, expressed in an extended trace assertion language (ETAL) specification. Finally, a new approach is illustrated with a realistic example for test result analysis including timing information based on the global events model.<>