Correcting a Naming Architecture using Lightweight Constraint Analysis

We used lightweight formal modeling and automatic analysis to explore and correct the design and implementation of the Intentional Naming System (INS). INS is a new scheme for resource discovery and service location in dynamic networks. We constructed a model of INS in Alloy, a lightweight relational notation, and analyzed it with the Alloy Analyzer (AA), a fully automatic simulation and checking tool. In doing so, we exposed several serious flaws in both the algorithms of INS and its underlying naming semantics. To correct the flaws in the INS algorithms, we developed a formal specification for naming in Alloy and refined it to specify the correctness criteria for INS algorithms. We accordingly modified the INS algorithms and verified their correctness using AA. Finally, we mapped these changes onto the original INS implementation, thereby correcting both the original design and implementation of the naming architecture of INS.