Model Checking Framework-based Applications with AspectJ Assistance

We built Smart Home applications for the Cognitively Impaired population. We have chosen to work with an existing framework, OSGi, which allows us to develop specific applications more quickly. We use a combination of traditional testing and formal verification to insure these applications will cause no harm to the cognitively impaired users of our systems. This paper will focus on our results to date of using model checking to verify OSGi applications. We have created a formal model parallel to OSGi, which can be reused as a modeling framework to plug in and check OSGi applications. The trick has been to vary and combine different features of OSGi (i.e., abstract away the details that are not relevant to the particular property we wish to verify, but include the details when they are relevant), since a feature tends to involve code scattering in multiple classes. We have found that aspect-oriented programming, using AspectJ, is a potential solution. Using aspects, we have been able to prune large portions of OSGi in a controllable manner. One obstacle to this approach is that AspectJ will introduce native code so that an AspectJ program can’t be checked by Java PathFinder (JPF). We report our efforts to date to resolve this problem and enable model checking AspectJ programs in general. KeywordsModel Checking; Java PathFinder; AspectJ; Framework; OSGi