Model‐based protocol specification

Abstract

AbstractWe propose a holistic Model‐Based Protocol Specification (MBPS) framework. Standards, procedures, and protocols are important anchors for interconnected systems: they facilitate the connectivity of billions of devices around the world, commodify advanced technologies and solutions, and enable efficient services involving trillions of transactions in aviation, medicine, e‐commerce, transportation, infrastructure, and other domains. Domain protocols allow for conventional interactions within a domain among ecosystem entities and humans (eg, airline ticketing, financial transactions, etc). Protocol specifications must be formal, consistent, and verifiable. Nevertheless, most current standard protocols are text‐based, unverifiable, and often inconsistent with themselves and with other standards. Text‐based standards are difficult to manage, track, control, and adopt. MBPS includes three critical enablers: a modeling language, a modeling process, and a model‐supported standardization process. This paper employs Object‐Process Methodology (OPM), a model‐based systems engineering framework, endorsed as ISO‐19450, for modeling and simulation of the generic protocol specification process and for two examples: (a) a Kerberos authentication protocol revision based on a previous Kerberos model and on a recently discovered vulnerability and (b) a domain‐specific Publish—Subscribe protocol application for selective information distribution.