Formal design of communication protocols

Abstract

We report partial results from a project aiming at defining guidelines for the specification and verification of communica tion protocols and services. A simple specification mediod is proposed. Using this technique we obtain verifiable specifications. These specifications can be used as the starting point for specification in description techniques, such as: LOTOS, Estelle, or SDL. Guidelines for specification and verification of communication protocols and services are given. It is argued that specifications should be expressed formally and that they should be well structured in order to facilitate verification, Examples of specification and verification are included.