Formal Verification of a Multicast Protocol in Mobile Networks

Authors: M. Matash Borujerdi, S.M. Mirzababaei

Abstract:

As computer network technology becomes increasingly complex, it becomes necessary to place greater requirements on the validity of developing standards and the resulting technology. Communication networks are based on large amounts of protocols. The validity of these protocols have to be proved either individually or in an integral fashion. One strategy for achieving this is to apply the growing field of formal methods. Formal methods research defines systems in high order logic so that automated reasoning can be applied for verification. In this research we represent and implement a formerly announced multicast protocol in Prolog language so that certain properties of the protocol can be verified. It is shown that by using this approach some minor faults in the protocol were found and repaired. Describing the protocol as facts and rules also have other benefits i.e. leads to a process-able knowledge. This knowledge can be transferred as ontology between systems in KQML format. Since the Prolog language can increase its knowledge base every time, this method can also be used to learn an intelligent network.

Keywords: Formal methods, MobiCast, Mobile Network, Multicast.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1072199

References:

[1] G.J.Holzmann, "Design and Validation of Computer Protocols", Prentice-Hall International Editions, AT&T Bell Laboratories 1991.
[2] J.F.Leathrum, J.Rasha, M.B.E.Morsi, T.E.Leathrum, "Formal Verification of Communication Protocols", 1996.
[3] Host Extensions for IP multicasting, IETF RFC 1112 specification.
[4] IETF TCP/IP Specifications : The TCP protocol, IETF RFC 793, IETF RFC 791, IETF RFC 1883.
[5] M.Barjaktarovic, "Formal specification and verification of the OSI Session Layer using the calculus of Communicating Systems (CCS)", Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Syracuse University, USA , 1995.
[6] M.G.Gouda , J.Y.Han, "Protocol Validation by fair progress state exploration", Computer Networks and ISDN Systems , Vol. 9, 1985.
[7] M.G.Gouda , Y.T.Yu, "Protocol Validation by maximal progress state exploration", IEEE Trans. on Communications, Vol. COM-32, No. 1, 1984.
[8] M.Fahimi, "Artificial Intelligence", Jelveh Publications, 2000.
[9] W.F.Clocksin, C.S.Mellish, "Programming in Prolog", Springer-Verlag, 1987.
[10] I.Bratko, "Prolog Programming for Artificial Intelligence", Addison- Wesley Publishing Company, 1994.
[11] C.L.Tan, S.Pink , "MobiCast : A Multicast scheme for wireless networks" , Baltzer Science Publishers BV, Mobile Networks and Applications 5, 2000.
[12] G.Xylomenos and G.C.Polyzos, "IP Multicasting for wireless mobile hosts", Proc. of the IEEE MILCOM Conf. on Military Communications, Vol. 3, 1996.
[13] T.G.Harrison, C.L.Williamsom, W.L.Mackrell and R.B.Bunt, "Mobile Multicast (MoM) protocol: Multicast support for mobile hosts", Proc. of ACM/IEEE MobiCom, 1997.
[14] C.Chang and R.C.Lee, "Symbolic Logic and Theorem Proving", Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1973.