Analysis and design for a standard transport protocol
P. W. Garratt, G. G. Michaelson · Software Practice and Experience · 1985
Abstract In the development of computer networks, the trend towards open systems interconnection is creating the need for standard protocols. The transport level protocols published by ECMA and ISO are supported by the Department of Industry as ‘intercept’ standards to be adopted by the computing community as a whole. This paper presents the published standards interpreted as a set of state transition diagrams. This reinterpretation is a necessary prerequisite to the method of implementation which is based on a finite state automaton. We summarize the advantages of a software ‘funnel machine’ to effect the state transitions during the execution of the transport protocol server. The same analysis and design technique has been used successfully to implement network and link protocol handlers. We recommend its adoption on a variety of machines in any programming language to ensure a relatively short development period and to achieve compatability among the different classes: 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4, of the transport protocol.