Computing and Information Systems - Research Publications

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Start date: 1994 × End date: 1999 × Subject: open distributed processing × Type: Conference Paper ×

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    Modelling ODP viewpoints
    Sinnott, Richard O. ; Turner, Kenneth J. (ACM Press, 1994)
    This paper gives a brief insight into the current work on the development of an architectural semantics for Open Distributed Processing (ODP). It first provides an introduction to the work on the formalisation in LOTOS and Z of the basic modelling and specification concepts of Part 2, and then focuses on the viewpoint languages of Part 3 of the Basic Reference Model for ODP (RM-ODP). It also shows up the separation of concerns that is achieved through these viewpoints thereby enabling systems to be considered from aspects which might be of interest to different people. This paper also highlights the way in which conformance between these formalised viewpoints can be checked, thereby ensuring that the system as a whole is consistent with the system as a collection of abstract viewpoints of the system. Finally the paper concludes with a brief discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of LOTOS and Z for modelling viewpoint languages and the RM-ODP generally.
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    Type checking in open distributed system: a complete model and its Z specification
    Sinnott, R. O. ; Turner, K. J. (Chapman & Hall on behalf of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), 1997)
    Type checking is at the heart of distributed systems. The ability to be able to configure objects and have them interwork correctly may well be regarded as the fundamental issue in the development of reliable distributed systems. The type system put forward in the current standardisation activity of Open Distributed Processing (ODP), however, is both and incorrect. The inadequacy is due to the scope of the type system being based entirely on syntactic issues. To achieve reliable interoperability between systems, a type system should deal with behavioural (semantic) issues as well as non-functional issues, aspects of the type that its signature and behaviour do not capture. The incorrectness is due to the syntactic issues not being dealt with correctly. That is, clients and servers have fundamentally different type rules that apply to them. We provide a Z specification of a robust type system that deals with the syntactic aspects of types (correctly) as well as a treatment of the behavioural and non-functional aspects of types.