Comprehensive Speci cation of DistributedSystems Using I

Low level diiculties in the development of distributed systems that are due to non-standard communication protocols and incompatible components or platforms have largely been solved through standardization and commoditization of protocols and platforms. Distributed systems are being designed at higher levels of sophistication these days, and having an expressive yet usable speciication language is a valuable tool. IOA is a formal language for specifying the semantics of distributed systems. I 5 is a speciication framework for architectural deenition of distributed systems, also intended as a basis for connguration management. I 5 has ve levels that specify mainly the structural characteristics at diierent levels of abstraction, but I 5 does not address the semantics or dynamics of distributed systems interactions. We explore the integration of IOA and I 5 to create combined speciications that enjoy the beneets of both speciication languages: the ve diierent levels of abstraction of I 5 with their structural speciication capabilities are enhanced by a semantic speciication written in IOA. We show an example of a speciication developed using IOA and I 5 in an integrated way. We consider general approaches to such integrated speciications and discuss the possibilities and limitations of integrating IOA and I 5 , as well as our future work towards the complete integration.