Approximate performance models of real-time software systems

Design of real-time systems needs to take into account their performance behaviour before their implementation. This goal can be attained by means of queueing network modelling. To process this kind of models normally simulation is used with its inherent costs of debugging and running times. This paper presents the analysis and comparison of several kinds of performance models of a basic software element used in the construction of real-time systems: the producer-consumer. These models go from the simple FIFO queue to the simulation of the complete system passing through some decomposition-aggregation approximate models