Specification and Formal Analysis of a PLAN Algorithm in Maude

Bow-Yaw Wang*, Jose Meseguer**, and Carl A. Gunter*
* University of Pennsylvania, USA
** SRI International, USA

Abstract

Rewriting logic can be used as a semantic framework to model next-generation networks and algorithms such as those of active networks with greater flexibility than standard model checking approaches. Using reflection, a wide range of formal analyses can be performed on a given specification by specifying an analysis algorithm as a metalevel theory that executes the specification as an object-level entity. We illustrate how the reflective rewriting logic language Maude can be used for this kind of formal specification and analysis by means of an active network algorithm written in the PLAN language, whose correct behavior from a given initial state is formally analyzed using the proposed methods.
Keywords: reflective rewriting logic, Maude, network algorithm, PLAN