Applying techniques and tools for the performance engineering of SDL systems

The integration of performance evaluation techniques into the SDL method is an important task. In particular in the area of telecommunications and dis tributed systems where product families have to be maintained for many year s, performance should be considered from the very beginning of system desig n. This paper demonstrates how performance engineering can be successfully applied. Firstly, an SDL specification of TCP/IP is used to derive a perfor mance model that includes the original SDL system as well as additional con structs describing the consumption of time and resources. Different impleme ntation variants have been evaluated in experimental scenarios. Secondly, t he application of a specification-driven monitoring technique to the same S DL specification of TCP/IP is described. The case study shows how the funct ional and temporal behaviour of an implementation derived from an SDL speci fication can be analysed and improved by monitoring the running system. The two approaches, modelling and monitoring, are supplementary to each other, This paper provides arguments that the systematic application of specifica tion-driven performance engineering will result in major savings of time an d money in later development phases and for later system releases. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.