A success story of formal description techniques: Estelle specification

This paper presents a success story of specifying a complex real-life protocol (MIL-STD 188-220) in Estelle and generating test sequences from the formal specification. 188-220 is being developed in the US Army, Navy and Marine Corps systems for mobile combat network radios. A key factor in this success story has been the collaboration among the researchers of the University of Delaware and the City College of the City University of New York, the developers of the US Army Communications–Electronics Command (CECOM), and the protocol designers in the Joint Combat Net Radio Working Group. Based on the research results, 188-220 test sequences are realizable without timer interruptions while providing a 200% increase in test coverage. The test cases are being installed at a CECOM test facility. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.