Design and implementation of a protocol verification system - LOVE

Abstract

In this thesis, an efficient protocol verification system named LOVE has been designed and implemented. LOVE has been developed specifically for LOTOS(language for temporal ordering specification) which has been developed as a Formal Description Technique by ISO(Internatinal Standard Organization) for the description of the OSI(Open System Interconnection) architecture. Protocol verification in LOVE is done in two steps, protocol syntax validation(PSV) and protocol functional verification(PFV). PSV is a test to check if a protocol is free from protocol syntax errors such as deadlocks, unspecified receptions, state ambiguities and livelocks. PFV confirms whether a protocol achieves its functional objectives. The reachability analysis is done for the PSV and the observational equivalence test is used for the PFV. LOVE, an abbreviation for LOtos VErifier, is the name given to a set of programs and command files which can be used for protocol simulation, PSV, and PFV. The input domain of the LOVE is a subset of LOTOS called the basic LOTOS. The basic LOTOS is an abridged version of the language employing a finite set of observable actions. The basic LOTOS deals with gate synchronization, but it does not check passing data values. LOVE has been installed on a SUN 3/280 machine running under the Unix operating system(OS), but it can be installed on any other Unix OS systems because it has no hardware-dependent codes. All programs have been written in C language. LOVE has two main parts, action tree builder(ATB) and equivalence tester(ET). The first main part, ATB, executes a basic LOTOS specification in batch mode, generates the corresponding action tree, and performs the PSV. Action tree is a kind of labelled transition diagram in which state information is contained implicitly. Because LOTOS is an event-based FDT, an action tree contains all dynamic characteristics of the LOTOS specification. The reachability analysis is performed on an action tree of the PSV. The ...