Applying Use Case Maps and Formal Methods to the Development of Wireless Mobile ATM Networks

Rossana M. C. Andrade
TSERG, School of Information Technology and Engineering,
University of Ottawa
150 Louis Pasteur, MCD 409, Ottawa,
Ontario, K1N 6N5, Canada
E-mail: randrade@site.uottawa.ca

Abstract.

Over the last few years, several alternatives for adding mobility
to Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) signaling protocols have been
presented in the literature. However, most of the current approaches for
wireless mobile ATM (WmATM) network development include only text and
information flows. As a result of the complexity involved in handling
mobility, communication, and handoff procedures for WmATM networks,
current approaches can lead to ambiguities, gaps, inconsistencies and
undesirable interactions at the later stages of the development process
where changes can be costly and provoke backward incompatibility. With
these problems in mind, this work proposes a development approach that
includes a technique called Use Case Maps (UCMs), and the following formal
methods: Language of Temporal Ordering Specifications (LoTOS) and Message
Sequence Charts (MSCs). UCMs are applied at the requirements capture and
analysis stages, followed by LoTOS and MSCs at the design stage. Besides
providing a better and more precise description of the system at the
early stages, our main goal is to combine these techniques and to help
solve design problems like the ones mentioned above. As a case study,
WmATM network procedures are specified using the proposed approach.

Keywords. Causal Scenarios, Use Case Maps, Formal Techniques, Language
of Temporal Ordering Specifications, Message Sequence Charts, Wireless
Mobile ATM Networks.