Fast protocol validation by the combination of process inspection and global inspection

In this paper, we propose a new method for fast and efficient detection of communication protocol errors with less memory requirements and processing time when there exists an excess/deficiency of definition or deadlock in si gnal transmission/reception. Practically, a new method of protocol validati on is presented where the protocol errors are detected by dividing the prot ocol inspection into two stages: one is inspection centered on the operatio ns of each process and the second is inspection of all process operations a t the same time. The characteristic of this method of validation is that in the former stage the excess/deficiency of transmission/reception is detect ed without enumerating the states of the whole system and in the second sta ge, deadlock is detected by enumerating the minimum number of system states . As a result, when the number of processes is large, the number of system states to be enumerated, can be greatly decreased as compared to the conven tional methods. To evaluate the proposed method of protocol validation we p resent application results of various protocol examples. We show that memor y requirements and processing time are greatly reduced and large-scale prot ocols with large number of processes which could not be fully inspected by the conventional methods, can also be validated completely. (C) 2000 Script a Technica, Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 83(7): 26-39, 2000.