Towards predicting real-time properties of a component assembly

This work addresses the prediction of timing properties of a component-based application already during the composition phase. At this stage, it is of vital importance to guarantee that the timing requirements (e.g. end-to-end deadlines) of a real-time application that is executed on a target system is satisfied. This is obtained by predicting the real-time behaviour of a component-based application. We extend an already existing scenario-based approach [J. Muskens et al. (2004)] with the possibility to model the behaviour of an application and the behavior of the underlying components. As a result, an application developer can reason accurately about the dynamic resource consumption and real-time properties of a component assembly. The modeling involves the specification of synchronization constraints for tasks and the simulation of application behaviour. A concluding case-study of video encoder development reveals that the approach is not only feasible but also addresses yet unsolved problems of task parallel execution and synchronization.