In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol 32, No 7, pages 486-502. July 2006. Doi:10.1109/TSE.2006.69.
Abstract: Performance models are used increasingly throughout the phases of the software engineering lifecycle of distributed component-based systems. However, as systems grow in size and complexity, building models that accurately capture the different aspects of their behavior becomes a more and more challenging task. In this paper, we present a novel case study of a realistic distributed component-based system, showing how Queueing Petri Net models can be exploited as a powerful performance prediction tool in the software engineering process. A detailed system model is built in a step-by-step fashion, validated, and then used to evaluate the system performance and scalability. Along with the case study, a practical performance modeling methodology is presented which helps to construct models that accurately reflect the system performance and scalability characteristics. Taking advantage of the modeling power and expressiveness of Queueing Petri Nets, our approach makes i t possible to model the system at a higher degree of accuracy, providing a number of important benefits.
Keywords: Queueing Petri nets; Performance prediction; Capacity planning; Distributed component-based systems.