ISSRE04 Workshop on
Integrated-reliability with Telecommunications and UML Languages
(ISSRE04:WITUL)
02 Nov 2004: IRISA Rennes France

ISSRE is a yearly conference organized by the IEEE. WITUL was one of several workshops attached to ISSRE 2004. The great need for reliability and wide use of the system design languages such as UML, SDL, TTCN, MSC and ASN.1 in the years leading up to WITUL emphasised the need for integration. It had been argued that the UML 2.0 version integrated languages such as MSC and SDL developed by ITU-T into UML. The forward perspective was that for real time systems the distinction between UML and use of the ITU languages may disappear. Although UML2.0 itself had been adopted, the envisaged evolution was not yet complete and the plans for work after WITUL included various notations (to be published in ITU) and work on Model Driven Architecture (MDA) in OMG.

The ITU-T work plan for 2004-2008 had further standardisation of ASN.1, SDL, MSC and TTCN including UML profiles and a project on language co-ordination. The ISSRE04 conference took place between the last meeting of the ITU study group for languages in one period and the first meeting in the next period. It was therefore an ideal time to critically review the future of ITU-T languages and the relationship to UML 2.0.

The objective of this short workshop was therefore:

1. To consider further evolution of the ITU-T languages (taking into account reliability issues);
2. To allow ISSRE participants to learn more about the ITU-T languages.

An indicative collaborative paper was produced (post event) based on the papers presented and the workshop discussion. This paper was for contribution to main bodies interested in the language standards (ITU, ETSI, and the SDL Forum Society).

Programme for WITUL:

Tutorial Introduction

• ASN.1, MSC, SDL and TTCN Today (click to access presentation material - .ppt)
  • Jens Grabowski, Rick Reed

Paper presentations - session 1

• UCM-Based Generation of Test Goals (click to access paper) (slides)
  • D. Amyot, M. Weiss, L. Logrippo
• Basic Protocols, Message Sequence Charts, and the Verification of Requirements Specifications (click to access paper) (slides)
  • A. Letichevsky, J. Kapitonova, A. Letichevsky jr., V. Volkov, S. Baranov, V. Kotlyarov, T. Weigert
• Developing Reliable Systems with SDL Design Patterns and Design Components (click to access paper) (slides)
  • C. Webel, I. Fliege, A. Geraldy, R. Gotzhein
• Taming Monsters like Daidalos - UML combined with ITU-T languages in large Telecommunication Projects (click to access paper) (slides)
  • Y. Liang, J. Jähnert, P. Christ

Paper presentations - session 2

• Using UML Models for the Performance Analysis of Network Systems (click to access paper) (slides)
  • N. de Wet, P. Kritzinger
• TTCN-3 Test Case Generation from Message Sequence Charts (click to access paper) (slides)
  • M. Ebner
• Timed Test Cases Generation based on MSC-2000 Test Purposes (click to access paper) (slides)
  • A. En-Nouaary, G. Liu
• Toolbased Language Development (click to access paper) (slides)
  • J. Fischer, E. Holz, A. Prinz, M. Scheidgen

16:00 - 17:00 Work shop discussion and conclusion. Issues:

• The vision for the future evolution and use of formal techniques in general (including - but not limited to - the ITU-T languages) for protocols, web services, software components, and software-on-chip;

• Methodology, Model Driven techniques, and Reference Modelling related to ITU-T languages and/or UML in telecommunications;

• Simplicity versus Complexity (ease of use, power of expression, number of languages & tools needed for engineering);

• Integration of ITU-T languages with each other and with UML - the latter both as a set of notations and a framework for the ITU-T languages;

The "ITU-T languages" are:

• ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation One ITU X.680 - X.689;
• SDL Specification and Description Language ITU Z.100 - Z.109;
• MSC Message Sequence Chart ITU Z.120 - Z.129;
• eODL extended Object Description Language ITU Z.130 - Z.129;
• TTCN Testing and Test Control Notation ITU Z.140 - Z.149;
• URN User Requirements Notation ITU Z.150 - Z.159.

The December 2005 Special Issue of Computer Networks (ISSN 1389-1286) contains selected, revised versions of the above papers with an editorial paper reflecting the workshop result.

Organising Committee

• Dieter Hogrefe - Institute for Informatics University of Göttingen (Chair)
• Rick Reed - SDL Forum Society
• Constantin Werner - Institute for Informatics University of Göttingen

Programme Committee and paper reviewers

• Ana Cavalli, INT, France
• Fabrice Dubois, France Telecom R&D, France
• Anders Ek, Telelogic, Sweden
• Jens Grabowski, University of Göttingen, Germany
• Dieter Hogrefe - Institute for Informatics University of Göttingen (Chair)
• Clive Jervis, Motorola USA
• Qing Li, Univeristy of Ottawa
• Arve Meisingset, Telenor, Norway
• Pedro Merino, University of Malaga, Spain
• Steve Randall, PQM, United Kingdom
• Rick Reed - SDL Forum Society
• Lisa Ritchie, Solinet, Germany
• Amardeo Sarma, NEC, Germany
• Umit Uyar, City University of New York, USA
• Eric Wong, University of Texas, USA