Formal methods: Importance, experience, and comparative analysis

In this paper, we investigate the use of formal methods in the various phases of the life-cycle of developing communications protocols, software, and distributed systems. We identify important reasons and benefits for using formal methods. We also review formal methods for automating some of these phases and conduct practical cases of using these formal methods. We elaborate on the experience gained from using such formal methods. We present comparative analysis of these methods and approaches where we prove unsuitability of some of them. The investigations of the scope of applicability and applications of these methods are also presented here. We conclude by highlighting points for further research.

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