Timing analysis of scenario-based specifications using linear programming

Scenario-based specifications such as UML interaction models offer an intuitive and visual way of describing design requirements, and are playing an increasingly important role in the design of software systems. In this paper, for specification and verification of real-time systems, we introduce more general and expressive timing constraints in UML sequence diagrams, and give an approach to timing analysis of scenario-based specifications expressed by UML2.0 interaction overview diagrams. Based on linear programming, we solve the reachability analysis, constraint conformance analysis, and bounded delay analysis problems, and give the algorithms for the three problems which are a decision procedure for a class of scenario-based specifications where no timing constraint is enforced on the repetition of any loop and one unfolding of any loop is time independent of the other unfolding, and a semi-decision procedure for general scenario-based specifications.