Verifying Complex Software Control Systems from Test Objectives: Application to the ETCS System

Ensuring the correctness of complex distributed software systems is a challenging task, the issue of building frameworks for developing such safe and correct systems still remains a difficult issue. Where test coverage is dissatisfying, formal analysis grants much higher potential to discover bugs during the development phase. This paper presents a framework for formal verification of complex systems based on standardized test objectives. The framework integrates a transformation of test objectives into formal properties that are verified on the system by model checking. The overall proposed approach for formal verification is evaluated by the application to the standard European Train Control System (ETCS). Some critical safety properties have been proved on the model, ensuring that the model is correct and reliable.