A formal specification of the ATM ABR rate control scheme

Abstract

Formal specifications are indispensable for computer-aided validation, verification, and testing of communication protocols. However, a large number of practical protocols, including those for ATM, have only informal English specifications. A formal specification helps in achieving a consistent interpretation and thus increases the likelihood of interoperable implementations. As a case study, we consider an important protocol — ATM's Available Bit Rate (ABR) service specification. The ABR source/destination policies have been specified using an English description in the main body of the ATM Forum's draft Traffic Management specification, from which it is hard to conduct a formal analysis. It must be noted however that considerable energy has been spent in providing a reasonably precise specification, while allowing for appropriate implementation latitude. However, an English description still has the potential for different interpretations, which may lead to discrepancy in different vendors' implementations and cause serious problems in interoperability of the communication entities made by different manufacturers. We model the ABR protocols by parameterized communicating extended finite state machines with timers, which is often called a transition system. The protocol is formally specified by the specification of the transitions of the system. We also provide insights gained in the derivation of the formal specification. Furthermore, we introduce a scheduler, involved in transmitting queued cells at the allowed cell rate to meet the minimal requirements from the source/destination protocols. We present the transitions for the source/destination/scheduler machines primarily for transmitting in-rate cells.