This book presents the latest research in formal techniques for distributed systems, including material on theory, applications, tools and industrial usage of formal techniques.
Formality is becoming accepted as essential in the development of complex systems such as multi-layer communications protocols and distributed systems. Formality is mandatory for mathematical verification, a procedure being imposed on safety-critical system development. Standard documents are also becoming increasingly formalised in order to capture notions precisely and unambiguously. This FORTE '91 proceedings volume has focussed on the standardised languages SDL, Estelle and LOTOS while, as with earlier conferences, remaining open to other notations and techniques, thus encouraging the continuous evolution of formal techniques. This useful volume contains 29 submitted papers, three invited papers, four industry reports, and four tool reports organised to correspond with the conference sessions.
Formal Description Techniques and Protocol Specification, Testing and Verification addresses formal description techniques (FDTs) applicable to distributed systems and communication protocols. It aims to present the state of the art in theory, application, tools and industrialization of FDTs. Among the important features presented are: FDT-based system and protocol engineering; FDT-application to distributed systems; Protocol engineering; Practical experience and case studies. Formal Description Techniques and Protocol Specification, Testing and Verification comprises the proceedings of the Joint International Conference on Formal Description Techniques for Distributed Systems and Communication Protocols and Protocol Specification, Testing and Verification, sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing, held in November 1998, Paris, France. Formal Description Techniques and Protocol Specification, Testing and Verification is suitable as a secondary text for a graduate-level course on Distributed Systems or Communications, and as a reference for researchers and practitioners in industry.
This book is the combined proceedings of the latest IFIP Formal Description Techniques (FDTs) and Protocol Specification, Testing and Verification (PSTV) series. It addresses FDTs applicable to communication protocols and distributed systems, with special emphasis on standardised FDTs. It features state-of-the-art in theory, application, tools and industrialisation of formal description.
FORTE/PSTV '97 addresses Formal Description Techniques (FDTs) applicable to Distributed Systems and Communication Protocols (such as Estelle, LOTOS, SDL, ASN.1, TTCN, Z, Automata, Process Algebra, Logic). The conference is a forum for presentation of the state-of-the-art in theory, application, tools and industrialization of FDTs, and provides an excellent orientation for newcomers.
Software programs are formal entities with precise meanings independent of their programmers, so the transition from ideas to programs necessarily involves a formalisation at some point. The first part of this graduate-level introduction to formal methods develops an understanding of what constitutes formal methods and what their place is in Software Engineering. It also introduces logics as languages to describe reasoning and the process algebra CSP as a language to represent behaviours. The second part offers specification and testing methods for formal development of software, based on the modelling languages CASL and UML. The third part takes the reader into the application domains of normative documents, human machine interfaces, and security. Use of notations and formalisms is uniform throughout the book. Topics and features: Explains foundations, and introduces specification, verification, and testing methods Explores various application domains Presents realistic and practical examples, illustrating concepts Brings together contributions from highly experienced educators and researchers Offers modelling and analysis methods for formal development of software Suitable for graduate and undergraduate courses in software engineering, this uniquely practical textbook will also be of value to students in informatics, as well as to scientists and practical engineers, who want to learn about or work more effectively with formal theories and methods. Markus Roggenbach is a Professor in the Dept. of Computer Science of Swansea University. Antonio Cerone is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Computer Science of Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan. Bernd-Holger Schlingloff is a Professor in the Institut für Informatik of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Gerardo Schneider is a Professor in the Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering of University of Gothenburg. Siraj Ahmed Shaikh is a Professor in the Institute for Future Transport and Cities of Coventry University. The companion site for the book offers additional resources, including further material for selected chapters, prepared lab classes, a list of errata, slides and teaching material, and virtual machines with preinstalled tools and resources for hands-on experience with examples from the book. The URL is: https://sefm-book.github.io
Communication protocols are rules whereby meaningful communication can be exchanged between different communicating entities. In general, they are complex and difficult to design and implement. Specifications of communication protocols written in a natural language (e.g. English) can be unclear or ambiguous, and may be subject to different interpretations. As a result, independent implementations of the same protocol may be incompatible. In addition, the complexity of protocols make them very hard to analyze in an informal way. There is, therefore, a need for precise and unambiguous specification using some formal languages. Many protocol implementations used in the field have almost suffered from failures, such as deadlocks. When the conditions in which the protocols work correctly have been changed, there has been no general method available for determining how they will work under the new conditions. It is necessary for protocol designers to have techniques and tools to detect errors in the early phase of design, because the later in the process that a fault is discovered, the greater the cost of rectifying it. Protocol verification is a process of checking whether the interactions of protocol entities, according to the protocol specification, do indeed satisfy certain properties or conditions which may be either general (e.g., absence of deadlock) or specific to the particular protocol system directly derived from the specification. In the 80s, an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) working group began a programme of work to develop formal languages which were suitable for Open Systems Interconnection (OSI). This group called such languages Formal Description Techniques (FDTs). Some of the objectives of ISO in developing FDTs were: enabling unambiguous, clear and precise descriptions of OSI protocol standards to be written, and allowing such specifications to be verified for correctness. There are two FDTs standardized by ISO: LOTOS and Estelle. Communication Protocol Specification and Verification is written to address the two issues discussed above: the needs to specify a protocol using an FDT and to verify its correctness in order to uncover specification errors in the early stage of a protocol development process. The readership primarily consists of advanced undergraduate students, postgraduate students, communication software developers, telecommunication engineers, EDP managers, researchers and software engineers. It is intended as an advanced undergraduate or postgraduate textbook, and a reference for communication protocol professionals.
Communication protocols form the operational basis of computer networks and telecommunication systems. They are behavior conventions that describe how communication systems interact with each other, defining the temporal order of the interactions and the formats of the data units exchanged – essentially they determine the efficiency and reliability of computer networks. Protocol Engineering is an important discipline covering the design, validation, and implementation of communication protocols. Part I of this book is devoted to the fundamentals of communication protocols, describing their working principles and implicitly also those of computer networks. The author introduces the concepts of service, protocol, layer, and layered architecture, and introduces the main elements required in the description of protocols using a model language. He then presents the most important protocol functions. Part II deals with the description of communication protocols, offering an overview of the various formal methods, the essence of Protocol Engineering. The author introduces the fundamental description methods, such as finite state machines, Petri nets, process calculi, and temporal logics, that are in part used as semantic models for formal description techniques. He then introduces one representative technique for each of the main description approaches, among others SDL and LOTOS, and surveys the use of UML for describing protocols. Part III covers the protocol life cycle and the most important development stages, presenting the reader with approaches for systematic protocol design, with various verification methods, with the main implementation techniques, and with strategies for their testing, in particular with conformance and interoperability tests, and the test description language TTCN. The author uses the simple data transfer example protocol XDT (eXample Data Transfer) throughout the book as a reference protocol to exemplify the various description techniques and to demonstrate important validation and implementation approaches. The book is an introduction to communication protocols and their development for undergraduate and graduate students of computer science and communication technology, and it is also a suitable reference for engineers and programmers. Most chapters contain exercises, and the author's accompanying website provides further online material including a complete formal description of the XDT protocol and an animated simulation visualizing its behavior.
This book presents the latest research results in protocol testing. It contains the complete proceedings of the seventh IFIP WG6.1 International Workshop on Protocol Test Systems (IWPTS '94), organized by the International Federation for Information Processing and held in Tokyo, Japan in November 1994. The book presents an alliance between research and industry and between the theory and practice of testing of data communication systems.
This five-volume set clearly manifests the great significance of these key technologies for the new economies of the new millennium. The discussions provide a wealth of practical ideas intended to foster innovation in thought and, consequently, in the further development of technology. Together, they comprise a significant and uniquely comprehensive reference source for research workers, practitioners, computer scientists, academics, students, and others on the international scene for years to come.