A Formal Specification of a Basic ODP-based Type Manager

A Type Repository function has been identified by Open Distributed Processing (ODP) standards currently under development as a support for managing the heterogeneity present in existing and future open distributed systems. The ODP Type Repository function provides a framework for describing and relating the types of information, services and entities in an open distributed system. This report considers one approach to the construction of a Type Repository function that is compliant with the current version of the ODP standards. A functionality of a Type Repository function is captured in this report by introducing an ODP-based Type Manager. A brief introduction to the functionality is presented, followed by a formal specification in Object-Z of two of the most fundamental components of any Type Manager: the type repository and the relationship repository. A summary of the important features of this specification is also presented. y The work reported in this paper has been funded in p..