Computer Aided Protocol Engineering
Jonathan Billington, David Kinny · 1989
We have described the field of protocol engineering and discussed the tool set required for a protocol engineering workstation. Three tools developed or fostered by the Telecom Research Laboratories have been described. PROTEAN is concerned with protocol specification, animation and analysis and is being used to improve the quality of protocol specifications. The PROMPT system provides a high-level net to C compiler, and is currently a prototype. It has the potential for considerable productivity improvements in protocol implementation, testing and maintenance. The ISDN Access Protocol Tester is being used by Telecom to test ISDN exchange communications software to provide quality assurance before new information services are offered to the business community. A similar tester for CCITT Common Channel Signalling protocols is also in use. Both the protocol testers and the PROTEAN system have been sold overseas. Some steps have been taken toward the provision of a first generation protocol engineering workstation and testing tools. The current systems need to be integrated and developed further but they are already providing considerable quality assurance and have the potential for substantial productivity increases, particularly in protocol maintenance and testing. The generic nature of the PROTEAN and PROMPT system developments will allow them to be used for a wide range of business information services.