Identifying Useful Mutants to Test Time Properties

• Real-time systems have to be verified and tested for timely behavior as well as functional behavior. Thus, time is an extra dimension that adds to the complexity of software testing. A timed automata model with a model-checker can be used to generate timed test traces. To properly test the timely behavior, the set of test traces should challenge the different time constraints in the model. This paper describes and adapts mutation operators that target such time constraints in timed automata models. Time mutation operators apply a delta to the time constraints to help testers design tests that exceed the time constraints. We suggest that the size of this delta determines how easy the mutant is to kill and that the optimal delta varies by the program, mutation operator, and the individual mutant. To avoid trivial and equivalent time mutants, the delta should be set individually for each mutant. We discuss mutant subsumption and define the problem of finding dominator mutants in this new domain. In this position paper, we outline an iterative tuning process where a statistical model-checker, UPPAAL SMC, is used to: (i) create a tuned set of dominator time mutants, and (ii) generate test traces that kill the mutants.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Datavetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Computer Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

mutation testing

model-based testing

mutant subsumption

real-time systems

embedded systems

Distribuerade realtidssystem (DRTS)

Distributed Real-Time Systems

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)