Analysing the behaviour of distributed software architectures: a case study

A software architecture is the overall structure of a system in terms of its constituent components and their interconnections. We describe work to associate behavioural specifications with the components of a distributed software architecture and an approach to analysing the behaviour of systems composed from these components. The approach is based on the use of labelled transition systems to specify behaviour and compositional reachability analysis to check composite system models. The architecture description of a system is used directly to generate the model used for analysis. Analysis allows a designer to check whether an architecture satisfies the properties required of it. The approach is illustrated using a case study of an active badge system