Platform Performance Suite (PPS): A framework for performance analysis & diagnosis of complex cyber-physical systems

The performance of cyber-physical systems (CPS) is a determining factor for their success and often needs to be guaranteed. When performance issues occur, their analysis and the identification of the root-cause should be fast. Typically the analysis requires the relation of system observations (i.e., tracing) to design and implementation artifacts. To make this relation between observations and system artifacts multidisciplinary domain knowledge is required, which typically resigns in workforce but is unmanageable due to the immense and continuously increasing system complexity. This paper proposes a model-based method, the Platform Performance Suite (PPS), supported by the corresponding tooling. PPS enables automated analysis for the identification of the root-cause when performance issues, like system throughput loss, occur. The cornerstone of the approach is the Lifecycle Software Architecture model which captures the domain knowledge in models by modeling all the relationships among the system artifacts from specification up to the runtime phase. The performance analysis at runtime phase is carried out on TMSC models guaranteeing the generic applicability of the method, while the connection to the other lifecycle phases enables the automated identification of the rootcause by pinpointing specific artifacts. The evaluation of the method has been carried out on a world-leading complex and high-performing CPS, the AMSL TWINSCAN system, where a throughput loss needs to be addressed promptly. PPS has shown a speed-up in the identification of the root-cause compared to the state-of-practice method.