Challenges in Modelling and Analyzing Quantitative Aspects of Bike-Sharing Systems

Bike-sharing systems are becoming popular not only as a sustainable means of transportation in the urban environment, but also as a challenging case study that presents interesting run-time optimization problems. As a side-study within a research project aimed at quantitative analysis that used such a case study, we have observed how the deployed systems enjoy a wide variety of different features. We have therefore applied variability analysis to define a family of bike-sharing systems, and we have sought support in available tools. We have so established a tool chain that includes (academic) tools that provide different functionalities regarding the analysis of software product lines, from feature modelling to product derivation and from quantitative evaluation of the attributes of products to model checking value-passing modal specifications. The tool chain is currently experimented inside the mentioned project as a complement to more sophisticated product-based analysis techniques.