On estimating protocol performance from a formal specification

Abstract

This paper introduces an approach for protocol performance estimation directly from a formal model of the protocol. By using the approach presented in this paper, performance of a protocol can be quickly estimated at an early stage of protocol design. The simplicity of analysis, achieved by deterministic analysis, and the tight integration of the performance model, called the performance reachability graph (PRG), with the formal specification makes the approach in this paper a very useful protocol design-time tool. The approach provides a two way path between the specification model and the performance model. In one direction, the tight coupling between the specification and the performance models allows a protocol designer to get quick estimates of performance from the specification. In the other direction a designer can use the performance estimates to quickly identify portions of the specification responsible for undesired performance characteristics and consider changes to the specification to improve the overall performance.