Formal Methods for Distributed Processing, A Survey of Object-oriented Approaches

This book presents the current state of the art in the application of formal methods to object-based distributed systems. A major theme of the book is how to formally handle the new requirements arising from OO distributed systems, such as dynamic reconfiguration, encapsulation, subtyping, inheritance and real-time aspects. These may be supported either by enhancing existing notations, such as UML, LOTOS, SDL and Z, or by defining new notations, such as Actors, Pi-calculus and Ambients. The major specification notations and modelling techniques are introduced and compared by leading researchers, in several cases the inventors of the notations. The book also includes a description of approaches to the specification of nonfunctional requirements, which are typically needed in the specification of multimedia systems, and a discussion of security issues.