Using ECATNets for specifying communication software in the OSI framework

CATNets are a general-purpose semi-graphical formalism for specifying concurrent objects, which have already been defined. The authors propose an extension to this formalism (ECATNets) aiming to increase their descriptive power. ECATNets are given interpretation in terms of a rewrite logic fitting into the same semantic framework as CATNets. The practical usefulness of ECATNets is shown through their application to a series of real-size communication protocols of the OSI environment. These studies show how ECATNets may be used to achieve modular specifications, which may be easily put together. The authors specification approach is based on starting from implementation concepts rather than from theoretical ones, thus bridging the gap between the theory and the practice