A CSP and Z combined modeling of document exchange processes in e-commerce protocols ?
E-commerce protocols comprise a vital component of the trading infrastructure over the Internet. Effectiveness and reliability of trading transactions likely depend on the quality of such protocols. However, building a quality e-commerce protocol may be more difficult than traditional protocols, as they are deployed in an open environment and data context-dependent. Application of formal methods has been suggested by many researchers as a viable approach for improving the reliability of software systems. But, can formal methods really help with the current crop of e-commerce protocols? As such, this paper made a study to formally formulate e-commerce protocols and identify their key features. A formal approach for modeling e-commerce protocols in a language combined of CSP and Z is developed. Compared to other works in formal modeling and analysis of e-commerce protocols, our approach concentrates on the XML document exchange processes of the protocols, which are a central part of most e-commerce protocols. The approach is illustrated by applying it to the Internet Open Trading Protocol, a trading protocol recommended by the Internet Engineering Task Force. The illustration demonstrates how the quality of a trading protocol can be improved through formalization.
csp z document exchange process e-commerce protocols internet open trading protocol formal specification