CUPID: A Protocol Development Environment

This papC'r describes research conducted towards Columbia's unified Protocol Implemelltation and Design (CUPID) environment. CUPID research aims at the integration and automation of protocol design and implementation tools. C{ -PID uses an algebraic representation of protocols based. in part. upon a variant of \lilner's calculus of communicating systems ICCS). Communication behaviors are represented in terms of f'xpressions of a universal algebra. A key notion to the automation of protocol development functions is that of a nluation over the algebra of communication behaviors. _-\. valuatioll maps communicat ion behaviors to expressions in other algebras (e.g., an algebra of dday dist ribut ion:' u:"",d for performance analysis). This allows one to proceed and compute attributes of communication behaviors over the respectiH algebras u::;ing a formal valuatiun prO(·I',:-'. We provide a brief introduction to CCS in the context of modelling proto("ol behaviors. This is followed by a brief summary uf Itow the alg~'br:.lic valuation mechanbm may be used tu stlpport the different functions of a protocol dt~5i!!;n environment: multiple concurn'nt spf:'tific:l.tions. automated functional and perform:1nce analysis :J.nd automated If",t gener:nion and performance simulation.