A Formal Model of Distributed Systems For Test Generation Missions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a formal four-layered model for testing complex distributed systems, enabling automated checklist generation by analyzing multiple interacting system models and their topological properties.

Contribution

It presents a novel formal layered model for distributed systems that integrates component-based and layered network concepts for improved test generation.

Findings

Formal four-layer model effectively captures distributed system complexities.

Interlayer mapping links topological properties across layers.

Model supports automated checklist generation for testing.

Abstract

Nowadays, deployment of distributed systems sets high requirements for procedures and tools for the complex testing of these systems - virtualization and cloud technologies make another level of system complexity. As a possible solution, it is necessary to determine a formal list of control objectives - checklists. The automated generation of checklists involves analyzing system models (with the analysis covering paths in a model). But complex distributed systems are usually a set of coexisting topologies which interact and depend on each other and it is necessary to use several models in order to cover different aspects. This work introduces a formal four layered model for test generation missions on the basis of the component-based approach and the concept of layered networks. The interlayer mapping determines how the topological properties on different layers affect each other and, as a consequence, represents technologies (virtualization, clustering, etc.) used to build distributed systems