Using formal specification and observers to specify and validate the ATM signaling protocols

Abstract

When ensuring that an implementation of a computer communications protocol satisfies both conformance with the specification and conformance with the intent/expectations of the designers, it is useful to write a formal specification, and derive the implementation directly from it. This permits the use of validation techniques that are expressed using concepts meaningful to the protocol designer. This technique has been applied to the testing and validation of the ATM higher layer signaling protocol (Q.2931) and the service specific connection oriented protocol (Q.2110), using the Estelle formal description language, and the observers of the Estelle Development Toolset.