Protocol validation via reachability analysis : an implementation

Reachability analysis is one of the earliest and most common techniques for protocol validation. It is well suited to checking the protocol syntactic properties since they are a direct consequence of the structure of the reachability tree. However, validations of unbounded protocols via reachability analysis always lead to the "state explosion" problem. To overcome this, a new approach in reachability analysis has been proposed by Vuong et al [Vuong 82a, 83a]. While not loosing any information on protocol syntactic properties, the Teachability tree constructed by the new approach for all non-FIFO and for a particular set of FIFO protocols (called well-ordered protocols) will become finite. This thesis is concerned with the implementation of an integrated package called VALIRA (VALIdation via Reachability Analysis) which bases on both the proposed technique and the conventional technique. Details and implementation of the various approaches used in VALIRA are presented in order to provide an insight to the package. Various features of the package are demonstrated with examples on different types of protocols, such as the FIFO, the non-FIFO, and the priority protocols. The use of VALIRA was found to be practical in general, despite some limitations of the package. Further enhancements on the VALIRA are also suggested.Science, Faculty ofComputer Science, Department ofGraduat