Merayo, M.G., Hierons, R.M. orcid.org/0000-0002-4771-1446 and Nunez, M. (2018) Passive testing with asynchronous communications and timestamps. Distributed Computing, 31 (5). pp. 327-342. ISSN 0178-2770
Abstract
We develop a formal passive testing framework for software systems where parties communicate asynchronously. Monitors, placed in between the entities, check that a certain property holds over the observations of the interaction between users and the system under test (SUT). Due to the asynchronous nature of communications, the trace observed by the monitor might differ from the one produced by the SUT: the monitor observes inputs before they are received by the SUT and outputs are observed after they are sent by the SUT. It is necessary to take this into account in passive testing; otherwise we might obtain false positives or false negatives. In order to better assess the real causality between actions, we consider the case where each action is labelled with a timestamp giving the time when it was observed at the monitor. We also assume that we know bounds on network latency and so the timestamps allow us to determine additional causalities between actions. Our monitors are implemented as automata that take into account communications being asynchronous. Our solution checks properties against traces in polynomial time and has low storage requirements. Therefore, our proposal is suitable for real-time passive testing.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Distributed Computing. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Model-based testing; Distributed systems; Timed systems |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Computer Science (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 18 Feb 2019 15:49 |
Last Modified: | 18 Feb 2019 15:55 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s00446-017-0308-0 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s00446-017-0308-0 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:142296 |