Model-based analysis and design of real-time distributed systems with Ada and the UML profile for MARTE

This paper considers the design of hard real-time distributed systems. It uses a model-based approach whose specification is made using UML, a high level standard modelling language. This work describes a tool-aided methodology to enable the assembly and transformation of such design intended models into schedulability analysis models. These analysis models are suitable for the verification of the timing properties of a fully described system in a real-time situation. The description of a real-time situation includes also the knowledge of the load the system is expected to support. In order to annotate the required non-functional properties, and to state other real-time enabling features, the UML profile for Modelling and Analysis of Real-Time and Embedded systems (MARTE), a recent modelling standard of the OMG, has been used. The methodology proposed brings several methodological guidelines to get in tune the generation of Ada applications described by the high level application modelling concepts provided by MARTE, with its corresponding schedulability analysis models. The tool associated to this methodology generates as an output the concrete analysis models used by the MAST set of tools, it invokes MAST, and also recovers the output results back into the high level design UML models.