UML and real-time systems

Abstract

UML has traditionally been used to specify object-oriented software systems. With its rising popularity, the desire to use it for various vertical domains have grown stronger, and in this paper we focus on requirements from the real-time domain. In particular, we look at how tools and features from the real-time domain have affected the standardization efforts when further developing the next generation of UML, called UML 2.0. As part of the language proper, the primary concern is to cover soft real-time aspects, while hard real-time aspects are handled as part of the Real-Time UML profile, which focuses on mechanisms to support schedulability and performance analysis. This paper focuses on the former aspects, but also touches on the latter aspects. In addition, we examine some of the influences from languages that are normally associated with real-time, such as SDL and UML-RT.