Roll Your Own Test Bed for Embedded Real-Time Protocols: A Haskell Experience

• ABSTRACT:
  
  We present by example a new application domain for functional languages: emulators for embedded real-time protocols. As a case-study, we implement a simple emulator for the Biphase Mark Protocol, a physical-layer network protocol in Haskell. The surprising result is that a pure functional language with no built-in notion of time is extremely well-suited for constructing such emulators. Furthermore, we use Haskell's property-checker QuickCheck to automatically generate real-time parameters for simulation. We also describe a novel use of QuickCheck as a ``probability calculator'' for reliability analysis.

• BIBTEX:
  

  @InProceedings{pike-haskell09,
    author =    {Lee Pike and Geoffrey Brown and Alwyn Goodloe},
    title =     {Roll Your Own Test Bed for Embedded Real-Time Protocols: A {H}askell Experience},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN Haskell Symposium},
    pages =     {61--68},
    year =      {2009},
    editor =    {Stephanie Weirich},
    publisher = {ACM}
  }

• PAPER DOWNLOAD: qcbiphase.pdf

• SLIDES DOWNLOAD: pike-haskell09.pdf Here's a video of the talk!

• SOURCE CODE:
  The source is in Haskell and released under a BSD3 license. You will need to download the Cabal tar file containing two source files as well as a patch for the QuickCheck Library (the patch only extends the API and should not break any existing code using QuickCheck). I also have copies of the source if you just want to browse..
• Cabal package: biphase-0.2.tar.gz
• Simulator: Biphase.hs and Haddock documentation
• QuickCheck Driver: BiphaseQC.hs and Haddock documentation
• License: BSD3 License
• QuickCheck Patch: pike-quotient-qc

INSTALATION INSTRUCTIONS: Well, first of all, just email me (address given at the bottom of this page) if you have any problems. I assume you have already installed GHC (Haskell compiler), Darcs (revision control system), and Cabal (Haskell build system).
1. First, download QuickCheck and patch it with the patch provided above. The easiest way to do this is as follows:

   $ darcs get http://code.haskell.org/QuickCheck
   $ cd QuickCheck
   

   Then edit the QuickCheck.cabal file by changing the version number to a higher number (e.g., 2.2) and save your changes. Now do the following:

   $ cp yourDownloadFolder/pike-quotient-qc ./
   $ darcs apply pike-quotient-qc
   $ cabal configure
   $ cabal build
   $ cabal install
   

2. Now download the simulator Cabal package above and execute the following in your shell:

   $ tar -xzvf biphase-0.2.tar.gz ; cd biphase-0.2
   $ cabal configure
   $ cabal build
   $ cabal install