Validating timing requirements for time basic net specifications

This article deals with the validation of formal requirement specifications of real-time systems. Formally specified requirements can be validated by both direct execution and by proving properties at the specification level. We first discuss how the timing characteristics of a system can be specified by a formalism based on high-level Petri nets. Then we show how its temporal properties can be proven by means of a symbolic execution-based proof method for time reachability analysis. Depending on the complexity of the model of the specified system, the method may contain some undecidable steps and require interaction with the user. In many practical cases, however, the method can be performed mechanically and has acceptable response times.