Time, clocks, and the ordering of events in a distributed system
Communications of the ACM
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An approach to testing the consistency of specifications is explored, which is applicable to the design validation of communication protocols and other cases of step-wise refinement. In this approach, a testing module compares a trace of interactions obtained from an execution of the refined specification (e.g., the protocol specification) with the reference specification (e.g., the communication service specification). Nondeterminism in reference specifications presents certain problems. Using an extended finite state transition model for the specifications, a strategy for limiting the amount of nondeterminacy is presented. An automated method for constructing a testing module for a given reference specification is discussed. Experience with the application of this testing approach to the design of a transport protocol and a distributed mutual exclusion algorithm is described.