Reasoning about Action Systems using the B-Method

Abstract

The action system formalism has been succesfully used when constructing parallel and distributed systems in a stepwise manner within the refinement calculus. Usually the derivation is carried out manually. In order to be able to produce more trustworthy software, some mechanical tool is needed. In this paper we show how action systems can be derived and refined within the B-Toolkit, which is a mechanical tool supporting a software development method, the B-Method. We describe how action systems are embedded in the B-Method. Furthermore, we show how a typical and nontrivial refinement rule, the superposition refinement rule, is formalized and applied on action systems within the B-Method. In addition to providing tool support for action system refinement we also extend the application area of the B-Method to cover parallel and distributed systems. A derivation towards a distributed load balancing algorithm is given as a case study.