Modeling and performance evaluation of network protocols

With the increasing complexity and shortening design cycles of embedded systems, system-level design methods are becoming more and more important. System-level design methods can determine whether the initial design alternative is feasible or not by the development of executable model of the system, which allows qualitative and quantitative properties to be analyzed before the system is actually realized in terms of hardware and software components. In this way, design errors can be detected in the earliest design phases. Furthermore, expensive and time-consuming design iterations are prevented. Network protocols have many complex concurrent and distributed characteristics, so it is very difficult to analyze them using mathematical methods. One of the most promising solutions to this problem is system-level modeling and simulation. This paper describes system-level design methods in detail. The modeling language Parallel Object-Oriented Specification Language (POOSL) and its extended component library are also introduced. Based on that, a system-level model for the selective-repeat sliding window protocol was built. Several results of performance evaluation are illustrated