TY - GEN
T1 - Visualisation for Stochastic Process Algebras: The Graphic Truth
AU - Smith, Michael James Andrew
AU - Gilmore, Stephen
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - There have historically been two approaches to performance modelling.
On the one hand, textual language-based formalisms such as stochastic
process algebras allow compositional modelling that is portable and easy to manage.
In contrast, graphical formalisms such as stochastic Petri nets and stochastic
activity networks provide an automaton-based view of the model, which may be
easier to visualise, at the expense of portability. In this paper, we argue that we
can achieve the benefits of both approaches by generating a graphical view of a
stochastic process algebra model, which is synchronised with the textual representation,
giving the user has two ways in which they can interact with the model.
We present a tool, as part of the PEPA Eclipse Plug-in, that allows the components
of models in the Performance Evaluation Process Algebra (PEPA) to be
visualised in a graphical way. This also provides a natural interface for labelling
states in the model, which integrates with our interface for specifying and model
checking properties in the Continuous Stochastic Logic (CSL). We describe recent
improvements to the tool in terms of usability and exploiting the visualisation
framework, and discuss some of the general features of the implementation that
could be used by other tools. We illustrate the tool using an example based on a
model of a financial web-service application.
AB - There have historically been two approaches to performance modelling.
On the one hand, textual language-based formalisms such as stochastic
process algebras allow compositional modelling that is portable and easy to manage.
In contrast, graphical formalisms such as stochastic Petri nets and stochastic
activity networks provide an automaton-based view of the model, which may be
easier to visualise, at the expense of portability. In this paper, we argue that we
can achieve the benefits of both approaches by generating a graphical view of a
stochastic process algebra model, which is synchronised with the textual representation,
giving the user has two ways in which they can interact with the model.
We present a tool, as part of the PEPA Eclipse Plug-in, that allows the components
of models in the Performance Evaluation Process Algebra (PEPA) to be
visualised in a graphical way. This also provides a natural interface for labelling
states in the model, which integrates with our interface for specifying and model
checking properties in the Continuous Stochastic Logic (CSL). We describe recent
improvements to the tool in terms of usability and exploiting the visualisation
framework, and discuss some of the general features of the implementation that
could be used by other tools. We illustrate the tool using an example based on a
model of a financial web-service application.
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-642-24749-1_23
DO - 10.1007/978-3-642-24749-1_23
M3 - Article in proceedings
SN - 978-3-642-24748-4
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science
SP - 310
EP - 324
BT - Computer Performance Engineering
PB - Springer
T2 - 8th European Performance Engineering Workshop
Y2 - 1 January 2011
ER -