Protocol engineering

Viac o knihe

Communication protocols are essential for the operation of computer networks and telecommunication systems, defining how these systems interact, the order of interactions, and data formats. Protocol Engineering encompasses the design, validation, and implementation of these protocols. The first part of the book covers the fundamentals, introducing concepts such as service, protocol, layer, and layered architecture, along with the key elements for protocol description using a model language. It also outlines important protocol functions. The second part focuses on describing communication protocols, presenting various formal methods central to Protocol Engineering. The author discusses fundamental description methods like finite state machines, Petri nets, process calculi, and temporal logics, which serve as semantic models for formal description techniques. Each main description approach is represented by a technique, including SDL and LOTOS, and the use of UML for protocol description is also surveyed. The third part addresses the protocol life cycle and development stages, offering systematic design approaches, verification methods, implementation techniques, and testing strategies, particularly conformance and interoperability tests using the TTCN test description language. Throughout, the book references the XDT (eXample Data Transfer) protocol to illustrate description techniques and validation approaches. This work se