Context-Sensitive Measurement-Based Worst-Case Execution Time Estimation

The goal of measurement-based WCET estimation (MBWE) is to derive an estimate of the worst-case execution time (WCET) of a given piece of software on a particular target platform by executing the software on the target hardware and analyzing the obtained time-stamped execution traces. In this paper we introduce context-sensitive MBWE, an approach that can reduce pessimism by making use of state information that is exposed through individual control-flow decisions. We show how to extend the popular IPET method, to obtain tighter WCET estimates. We provide confirmative empirical results that demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.