Formal Methods for Distributed System Development

This book addresses Formal Methods (FMs) applicable to the specification, verification, implementation, and testing of complex distributed systems and communication protocols. The early, pioneering phases in the development of Formal Methods, with their conflicts between evangelistic and skeptical attitudes, are essentially over. Many Fms have reached maturity, and a number of papers in this book report on successful experiences in specifying and verifying real distributed systems and protocols. The main topics covered are: model checking theory and applications; verification and theorem proving; testing theory and applications; multicast protocol analysis and simulation; hardware specification, implementation, and testing; FMs for security. £/LIST£ Formal Methods for Distributed System Development compiles the proceedings of the Joint International Conference on Formal Description Techniques for Distributed Systems and Communication Protocols (FORTE XIII) and Protocol Specification, Testing, and Verification (PSTV XX), which was sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Pisa, Italy, in October 2000. This volume is suitable as a secondary text for graduate-level courses on software engineering, distributed systems, and communications, and as a reference both for researchers and for industry practitioners.