IO - AN ESTELLE SIMULATOR FOR PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

This paper describes a performance simulation tool based on Estelle. Estelle is a Formal Description Technique designed to specify the behavior of concurrent systems, in particular communication protocols. It is based on a state machine model extended with Pascal-like data structures and statements. Currently, Estelle is an International Standard of the International Standards Organization (ISO), and several development tools such as syntax-directed editors, compilers, and debuggers are available in the research community. The main objective of the tool described here is to integrate the evaluation of performance with other aspects of protocol development (validation, rapid-prototyping, etc) using common protocol models and tools for all of them. The paper deals with practical aspects of simulation with Estelle, such as the use of the language to write simulation models, the tool features and its current status. A theoretical discussion about the applicability of formal description techniques to performance simulation, although important, is considered outside the scope of this paper.