Int. J. Critical Computer-Based Systems, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2018 169 A formal model for the analysis and verification of a pre-emptive round-robin arbiter Imene Ben Hafaiedh* Institut Sup´ erieur d’Informatique (ISI), Universit´ e de Tunis El Manar (UTM), Tunis, Tunisia Email: ben.hafaiedh.imen@gmail.com *Corresponding author Maroua Ben Slimane Ecole Polytechnique de Tunisie (EPT), Universit´ e de Carthage (UC), La Marsa, Tunisia Email: benslimanemaroua@gmail.com Riadh Robbana INSAT, Universit´ e de Carthage (UC), Sidi Bou Said, Avenue de la République, Carthage 1054, Tunisia Email: riadh.robbana@gmail.com Abstract: Resource arbitration is a fundamental problem in communication and computing system design. Thus, a fast and efficient arbitration algorithm is one of the most dominant factors for high performance networks-on-chip (NoCs) and ensuring their reliability and performance is highly required. In this context, we propose, a formal model for the analysis and validation of the round-robin protocol, considered as the most widely adopted scheduling algorithm, in particular for real-time applications. The contribution of this paper is first to propose a high-level formal, distributed and scalable model for round-robin arbiter based on the formalism of timed automata. We then employ model checking, to verify a set of relevant properties of the round-robin protocol such as deadlock freedom and invariant. In order to evaluate the efficiency and the scalability of the protocol under study, a set of experimental results are presented based on an automatically generated code of our proposed model. Keywords: bus arbitration; round-robin; multiprocessor system-on-a-chips; MPSoCs; formal verification; deadlock-freedom; timing constraints. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Hafaiedh, I.B., Slimane, M.B. and Robbana, R. (2018) ‘A formal model for the analysis and verification of a pre-emptive round-robin arbiter’, Int. J. Critical Computer-Based Systems, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp.169–192. Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.