https://www.mdu.se/

Modern real-time data-intensive systems generate large amounts of data that are processed using complex data-related computations such as data aggregation. In order to maintain the consistency of data, such computations must be both logically correct (producing correct and consistent results) and temporally correct (completing before specified deadlines). One solution to ensure logical and temporal correctness is to model these computations as transactions and manage them using a Real-Time Database Management System (RTDBMS). Ideally, depending on the particular system, the transactions are customized with the desired logical and temporal correctness properties, which are achieved by the customized RTDBMS with appropriate run-time mechanisms. However, developing such a data management solution with provided guarantees is not easy, partly due to inadequate support for systematic analysis during the design. Firstly, designers do not have means to identify the characteristics of the computations, especially data aggregation, and to reason about their implications. Design flaws might not be discovered, and thus they may be propagated to the implementation. Secondly, trade-off analysis of conflicting properties, such as conflicts between transaction isolation and temporal correctness, is mainly performed ad-hoc, which increases the risk of unpredictable behavior.

In this thesis, we propose a systematic approach to develop transaction-based data management with data aggregation support for real-time systems. Our approach includes the following contributions: (i) a taxonomy of data aggregation, (ii) a process for customizing transaction models and RTDBMS, and (iii) a pattern-based method of modeling transactions in the timed automata framework, which we show how to verify with respect to transaction isolation and temporal correctness. Our proposed taxonomy of data aggregation processes helps in identifying their common and variable characteristics, based on which their implications can be reasoned about. Our proposed process allows designers to derive transaction models with desired properties for the data-related computations from system requirements, and decide the appropriate run-time mechanisms for the customized RTDBMS to achieve the desired properties. To perform systematic trade-off analysis between transaction isolation and temporal correctness specifically, we propose a method to create formal models of transactions with concurrency control, based on which the isolation and temporal correctness properties can be verified by model checking, using the UPPAAL tool. By applying the proposed approach to the development of an industrial demonstrator, we validate the applicability of our approach.