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Final Report of the COST-247 Action


Open Distributed Processing: new challenges for Formal Methods

Maarten Steen, Eerke Boiten, Howard Bowman and John Derrick

Computing Lab.
University of Kent at Canterbury
Kent CT2 7NF
United Kingdom
Email: mwas@ukc.ac.uk
Tel: +44 1227 764000 x3822
Fax: +44 1227 762811

Abstract:

This presentation will give an overview of the Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing and the challenges it presents to the formal methods community.

The RM-ODP is a natural progression from the OSI Reference Model, extending the scope of standardisation from the point of interconnection to the end-to-end system behaviour. The objective is to enable the construction of distributed systems in a multi-vendor environment through the provision of a general architectural framework that such systems must conform to.

One of the cornerstones of this framework is a model of multiple viewpoints, each with an associated viewpoint language. The five ODP viewpoints (enterprise, information, computational, engineering and technical) provide a set of models each aimed at capturing one facet of the design. Requirements and specifications of an ODP system can be made from any of these viewpoints. This is in contrast with the traditional waterfall model that most formal design methodologies adhere to.

The following challenges can be identified:

This presentation has been given during the COST-247 5th Management Committee Meeting (Warsaw, Poland, June 12--13, 1995).

COST-247 Working Group(s): 1

Web links: http://alethea.ukc.ac.uk/Dept/Computing/Research/NDS/consistency/


This Page was prepared by Mark Jorgensen.


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