System-Level Modeling and Performance Analysis

To manage complexity and to shorten design time, systemlevel methods for specification and design are becoming more and more important. System-level methods and tools focus on the creation of executable models that describe a system in the earliest phases of the design process. They allow qualitative (correctness) and quantitative (performance) properties to be analyzed before the system is actually being realized in terms of hardware and software components. The results of such early analysis can be used as input for taking structured and well-founded design decisions. System-level methods and tools should be based on well-defined modeling languages to support developing an executable model that properly represents the system to be designed. An example of such a modeling language is the Parallel Object-Oriented Specification Language (POOSL). POOSL enables to construct appropriate executable models of complex real-time hardware/software systems. The language has proven to be very useful for describing real-life systems and for verifying their correctness properties. This paper describes the experiences with applying the POOSL formalism on analyzing the performance properties of an industrial-size switch system. The problems encountered when modeling and analyzing such a complex system are presented together with the challenges for future research. Keywords—System-Level Design, System-Level Modeling, Performance Evaluation, Parallel Object-Oriented Specification Language (POOSL).