In this paper, we propose an algorithm to convert a given structured LOTOS specification into an equivalent flattened model called synchronous EFSMs. The synchronous EFSMs model is an execution model for communication protocols and distributed systems where each system consists of concurrent EFSMs and a finite set of multi-rendezvous indications among their subsets. The EFSMs can be derived from a specification in a sub-class of LOTOS and its implementation becomes simpler than the straightforward implementation of the original LOTOS specification because the synchronization among the processes in the model does not have any child-parent relationships, which can make the synchronization mechanism much more complex. Some experimental results are reported to show the advantage of synchronous EFSMs in terms of execution efficiency.

In LOTOS, requirements for a distributed system are described as a service definition. On the protocol level, each node (protocol entity) must exchange some data values and synchronization messages to provide a service described in a service definition. The tuple of the specifications of all nodes in the system which provide the service is called as a protocol specification. In order to develop the communication programs satisfying a given service definition, it is very important to develop the correct protocol specification. For this purpose, the simulation of protocol specifications is useful and it is desirable that the designer can observe how a protocol specification is executed in parallel and how synchronization messages are exchanged among the nodes. Therefore, we have developed a new tool named PROSPEX. For a given pair of a service definition and a protocol specification, it executes the protocol specification in parallel and shows its execution process graphically on X Window System. If the protocol specification executes an event sequence which does not satisfy the service definition, then PROSPEX informs it to the designer. In this paper, the design and usefulness of PROSPEX are described.

Verification of timed bisimulation equivalence is generally difficult because of the state explosion caused by concrete time values. In this paper, we propose a verification method to verify timed bisimulation equivalence of two timed processes using a symbolic technique similar to [1]. We first propose a new model of timed processes, Alternating Timed Symbolic Labelled Transition System (A-TSLTS). In an A-TSLTS, each state has some parameter variables, whose values determine its behaviour. Each transition in an A-TSLTS has a quard predicate. The transition is executable if and only if its guard predicate is true underspecified parameter values. In the proposed method, we can obtain the weakest condition for a state-pair in a finite A-TSLTS, which the parameter values in the weakest condition must satisfy to make the state-pair be timed bisimulation equivalent.

In a distributed system, the protocol entities must exchange some data values and synchronization messages in order to ensure the temporal ordering of the events described in a service specification for the distributed system. It is desirable that a correct protocol specification can be derived automatically from a given service specification. In this paper, we propose an algorithm which synthesizes automatically a correct protocol specification from a service specification described as a Marked Graph with Registers (MGR) model and resources (registers and gates) allocation information. This model has a finite control modeled as a marked graph. Therefore, parallel events can be described. In our method, to minimize the number of the exchanged messages, we use a procedure to calculate an optimum solution for 0-1 integer linear programming problems. The number of the steps which each protocol entity needs to simulate one transition in the service specification is also minimized. Ways to avoiding conflict of registers are also described. Our approach has the following advantages. First, parallel events can be described in a service specification. Secondly, many practical systems can be described in the MGR model. Finally, at the protocol specification level, we can understand what events can be executed in parallel.

In this paper, we propose a technique to synthesize a hardware circuit from a protocol specification consisting of several concurrent EFSMs with multi-rendezvous specified among their subsets. In our class, each multi-rendezvous can be specified among more than two EFSMs, and several multi-rendezvous can be specified for different combinations of EFSMs. In the proposed technique, using the information such as current states of EFSMs, input values at external gates and guard expressions, we compose a circuit to evaluate whether each multi-rendezvous can be executed. If several exclusive multi-rendezvous get executable simultaneously for some combinations of EFSMs, we select one of them according to the priority order given in advance. We compose such a circuit as a combinational logic circuit so that it works fast. By applying our technique to Abracadabra protocol specified in LOTOS, it is confirmed that the derived circuit handles multi-rendezvous efficiently.

This short paper treats some decision problems for Petri Nets and shows that the problems of the safeness, the reachability and the proper termination are NP-complete for Petri Nets in which each transition fires at most once.