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On the Use of Formal Specifications to Analyze Fault Behaviors of Distributed Systems

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Dependable Computing (LADC 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2847))

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Abstract

The development of distributed systems is considered a complex task. The process of assuring the correctness of such systems is even more difficult if we consider open environments (e.g. Internet), where faults may occur. To help such process we make use of formal methods and tools as means to specify and reason about the behavior of distributed systems in the presence of faults. We use a graphical and declarative formal specification language, called Object Based Graph Grammars, to model asynchronous distributed systems. The approach used to specify and analyze the behavior of distributed systems in the presence of faults is based on the observation that a fault behavior can be modeled as an unwanted but possible state transition of a system. Following this approach we can define a fault model, like crash for example, as being a transformation of a model. Thus, a model M 1 of a distributed system can be transformed into a model M 2, that comprehends the behavior of some kind of fault model. To show these methods and tools we model a pull-based failure detector as a case study.

This work is partially supported by HP Brasil – PUCRS agreement CASCO (24∘ TA.), and ForMOS Research Project – FAPERGS (Brazil) grant 01/0759.1 and CNPq (Brazil) grant 520269/98-5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Informática, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, ZIP 90619-900, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Fernando L. Dotti, Osmar M. dos Santos & Eduardo T. Rödel

Authors
  1. Fernando L. Dotti
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  2. Osmar M. dos Santos
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  3. Eduardo T. Rödel
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computing Laboratory, University of Kent,  

    Rogério de Lemos

  2. Instituto de Informática, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Caixa Postal 15064 – 90501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Taisy Silva Weber

  3. Escola Politécnica Travessa 3, Número, Universidade de São Paulo,, 158, Edifício de Engenharia Eletricidade, 05508-900, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    João Batista Camargo Jr.

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Dotti, F.L., dos Santos, O.M., Rödel, E.T. (2003). On the Use of Formal Specifications to Analyze Fault Behaviors of Distributed Systems. In: de Lemos, R., Weber, T.S., Camargo, J.B. (eds) Dependable Computing. LADC 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2847. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45214-0_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45214-0_24

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20224-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45214-0

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