A relational notation for state transition systems

Abstract

A relational notation for specifying state transition systems is presented. Several refinement relations between specifications are defined. To illustrate the concepts and methods, three specifications of the alternating-bit protocol are given. The theory is applied to explain auxiliary variables. Other applications of the theory to protocol verification, composition, and conversion are discussed. The approach is compared with previously published approaches.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>