Monitoring Time Intervals

Teng Zhang, John Wiegley, Insup Lee, Oleg Sokolsky

Abstract: Run-time checking of timed properties requires to monitor events occurring within a specified time interval. In a distributed setting, working with intervals is complicated due to uncertainties about network delays and clock synchronization. Determining that an interval can be closed – i.e., that all events occurring within the interval have been observed – cannot be done without a delay. In this paper, we consider how an appropriate delay can be determined based on parameters of a monitoring setup, such as network delay, clock skew and clock rate. We then propose a generic scheme for monitoring time intervals, parameterized by the detection delay, and discuss the use of this monitoring scheme to check different timed specifications, including real-time temporal logics and rate calculations.