Specification And Description Language Specification Research Articles

Applying Automated Model Extraction for Simulation and Verification of Real-Life SDL Specification With Spin

Formally defined Specification and Description Language (SDL) is used for the design and specification of complex safety-critical systems. Each change in the specification of the product should be immediately checked formally against the requirements’ specification. This paper presents semi-automated system abstraction, automated model extraction, simulation, and formal verification of real-life complex SDL specification. Sound algorithms implemented in our sdl2pml automated model extraction tool preserve all properties of the SDL system. Sdl2pml includes our model of discrete time, abstraction, and support for all relevant SDL functionality and constructs such as dynamic process creation, rational data types, and communication with more than one process instance. To the best of our knowledge, most of them are not supported by any other known approach. We use our SpinRCP tool for simulation and formal verification of the extracted model with the Spin model checker. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach on ISDN User adaptation protocol from SI3000 Softswitch. The extracted Promela model is the largest one ever processed by Spin. We have shown that Spin simulation and model checking can be applied successfully to such huge models.

Mapping SDL Specification Fundamentals to Core SDL Ontology

This paper gives a contribution in the efforts of Semantic web ontology development. We have developed the core ontology for Specification and Description Language (SDL),an object-oriented, formal language defined by the International Telecommunications Union Telecommunications Standardization Sector (ITU-T) as recommendation Z.100. The language is intended for the specification of complex, event-driven, real-time, and interactive applications involving many concurrent activitiesthat communicate using discrete signals. Using SDL formal model for system specification we bridge the gap between ideas in our minds and the actual implementation of the system. Being visually appealing SDL provides us with a simple tool for communication either between the softwaredevelopers or between non-experts without advanced engineering skills. In this paper we propose the ontology for the basic SDL system and process elements. We also propose a formal framework of SDL Markup Language as a medium for translating SDL model to SDL ontology.

Sdl2pml — Tool for automated generation of Promela model from SDL specification

This paper presents research results from the field of automated generation of verification model from real-life SDL (Specification and Description Language) specification of the system. An award winning model checker Simple Promela Interpreter (Spin) was used for formal verification. Preparing a verification model from real-life specification is a hard task. We implement most of our research results in the tool named sdl2pml (SDL to Promela) in order to avoid human errors while building the verification model. This tool is used for automated generation of the model. We present its architecture and compare the implemented features with other existing tools. Additionally, we demonstrate its use on a real-life specification of an IUA (ISDN User Adaptation) protocol which is part of the SI3000 softswitch.

Automated generation of Promela model from SDL specification

This paper presents our research in the domain of automated generation of a model from an SDL (Specification and Description Language) system specification. We use the Spin (Simple Promela Interpreter) formal verification tool and the Promela (Process Meta-Language) language for the description of the model. If the model is prepared manually, we need an expert with the detailed knowledge of the system, specification language, and modelling language. This method is prone to the incorrect modelling of the system's properties due to the human error. Therefore, automatic generation of the model from the SDL specification is desired.

A comparison between handwritten and automatic generation of C code from SDL using static analysis

The experience reported in this paper relates to an evaluation of the automatic generation of C code from the Specification and Description Language (SDL) specification of embedded applications. The evaluation has been carried out by comparing the automatically generated code with the manually implemented code, both compliant to the same SDL specification: this comparison is based on a selection of metrics measured on both codes by means of commercial static analysis tools. Notwithstanding the different structure of the two codes, we appropriately selected and aggregated the obtained results in order to use them as indicators of code size, control flow complexity and integration flow complexity. For a better comparison of the two codes, we have also introduced a novel complexity metric, which compares the control flow complexity with the integration flow of the two different software architectures. The aim of the paper is not merely to evaluate the code generator used, but rather to propose a set of techniques that can be used to conduct similar evaluations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The formal semantics of SDL-2000: Status and perspectives

In November 1999, the current version of specification and description language (SDL), commonly referred to as SDL-2000, passed through ITU-T. In November 2000, the formal semantics of SDL- 2000 was officially approved to become part of the SDL language definition. It covers both the static and the dynamic semantics, and is based on the formalism of abstract state machines (ASMs). To support executability, the formal semantics defines, for each SDL specification, reference ASM code, which enables an SDL-to-ASM-compiler. In this paper, we briefly survey and compare existing approaches to define the semantics of SDL formally. The ITU-T approach is then outlined in more detail, addressing the following steps: (1) mapping of non-basic language constructs to the core language, (2) checking of static semantics conditions, (3) definition of the SDL abstract machine (SAM), and (4) definition of the SDL virtual machine (SVM). The paper concludes with experiences from the SDL-to-ASM-compiler project. It is proposed that the SDL-2000 semantics can be adapted and extended to formally define the meaning of UML 2.0 class, composite structure, and statechart diagrams.

Test cases selection from SDL specifications

Selecting appropriate test cases is a crucial activity in software testing. In this paper, we give an overview and discuss existing methods and tools for test case selection for communication protocols. More precisely, we are interested in techniques for test case generation from specification and description language (SDL) specifications and its underlying behavioral model, extended finite state machines (EFSM) and its variants.

Design of universal personal computing using SDL

Universal Personal Computing (UPC) is a novel concept to support nomadic computing on the Internet. UPC enables mobile users to access their personalized computing environment anywhere on the Internet using any available terminals. The system is modeled as distributed objects using Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) to facilitate their distribution, interfacing, and integration. We have chosen the Specification and Description Language (SDL) for our system design. Through several iterations, we refine the specification and verify the correctness of the design. The final version serves as the basis for system implementation. The SDL specification allows a direct derivation of object interface description in Interface Definition Language (IDL). Finally some implementation issues are discussed.