Modelling open distributed systems in Z

Formal modelling can greatly assist the design and development of distributed systems. To be effective, such modelling needs formal description techniques capable of representing concepts particular to distributed systems (as well as more general concepts applicable to all systems). The Open Distributed Processing (ODP) standardization effort describes a set of concepts considered relevant to the description of open distributed systems, and also specifies requirements for formal description techniques used in modelling these systems. In this paper we show how the Z specification language (and its object-oriented extension, Object-Z) satisfies ODP requirements and can express ODP concepts. We conclude that Z and Object-Z are well-suited to modelling ODP systems in particular, and distributed systems in general.

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