Automatic Modeling and Simulation of Networked Components

Abstract

Testing and verification are essential to safe and consistent products. Simulation is a widely accepted method used for verification and testing of distributed components. Generally, one of the major hurdles in using simulation is the development of detailed and accurate models. Since there are time constraints on projects, fast and effective methods of simulation model creation emerge as essential for testing.

This thesis proposes to solve these issues by presenting a method to automatically generate a simulation model and run a random walk simulation using that model. The method is automated so that a modeler spends as little time as possible creating a simulation model and the errors normally associated with manual modeling are eliminated. The simulation is automated to allow a human to focus attention on the device that should be tested.

The communications transactions between two nodes on a network are recorded as a trace file. This trace file is used to automatically generate a finite state machine model. The model can be adjusted by a designer to add missing information and then simulated in real-time using a software-in-the-loop approach.

The innovations in this thesis include adaptation of a synthesis method for use in simulation, introduction of a random simulation method, and introduction of a practical evaluation method for two finite state machines.

Test results indicate that nodes can be adequately replaced by models generated automatically by these methods. In addition, model construction time is reduced when comparing to the from scratch model creation method.