The development of a syntax checker for LOTOS

Abstract

In this article a brief overview is given of specification techniques in general and in particular, specification techniques used for the specification of communication protocols. This discussion forms the background against which the development of a syntax checker for LOTOS, LOTOSCHECK, was done. LOTOS is a specification technique which was developed during 1981-1984 for the specification of communication protocols. Development tools such as LOTOSCHECK are required in order to eventually semi-automate the lengthy and complex task of implementing and verifying a protocol. In the first section of the article the concept of a specification is discussed in general. In Section 2 the increasing interest in specification techniques in the area of data communications is discussed. In this section, reference is made to some of the formal description techniques for protocol specification which are currently being developed. LOTOS is introduced as one of these techniques which is currently receiving a lot of attention. An overview of LOTOS will be given in Section 3. This section will give a brief introduction to LOTOS and describe some of the more interesting characteristics of LOTOS. In Section 4 the actual development of LOTOSCHECK is discussed. The parsing technique which was used will be discussed in particular. The article concludes with references to other work already done in the area of semi-automated implementations of communication protocols. 1.