Communication Service and Protocol Specification Using Object-Oriented Analysis

In order to obtain a highly reliable communications system, the development approach in terms of both services and protocols, must be suitably supported by appropriate specification tools able to provide complete, unambiguous and flexible description techniques. In most of comunication applications the LOTOS language [2], among the standard formal description techniques [1][2][3], is widely used. In this paper the Object Oriented Analysis is introduced to describe a specification method able to increase accuracy in specification while at the same time providing an efficient means fo rapid prototyping. This work shows the results of the proposed approach and describes a specific communication protocol, the Controller Area Netwok - (CAN), which is now being used in a broader class of applications within the factory automation process.