A semi-automatic approach to protocol implementation : the ISO class 2 Transport protocol as an example

• Main Author: Lau, Allen Chakming
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2010
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/25907

Formal Description Techniques (FDTs) for specifying communication protocols, and the adopted FDT standards such as Estelle have opened a new door for the possibility of automating the implementation of a complex communication protocol directly from its specification. After a brief overview of Estelle FDT, we present the basic ideas and the encountered problems in developing a C-written Estelle compiler, which accepts an Estelle specification of protocols and produces a protocol implementation in C. The practicality of this tool — the Estelle compiler — has been examined via a semi-automatic implementation of the ISO class 2 Transport Protocol using the tool. A manual implementation in C/UNIX 4.2bsd of this protocol is also performed and compared with the semi-automatic implementation. We find the semi-automatic approach to protocol implementation offers several advantages over the conventional manual one. These advantages include correctness and modularity in protocol implementation code and reduction in implementation development time. In this thesis, we discuss our experience on using the semi-automatic approach in implementing the ISO class 2 Transport Protocol. === Science, Faculty of === Computer Science, Department of === Graduate