Formal Behavioural Patterns for the Tool-Assisted Design of Distributed Applications

Design patterns are well-known in the field of general software engineering. Informal patterns represent principles of proven designs and encourage their re-use. Meanwhile manifold helpful patterns even for distributed applications exist. In particular, behavioural patterns can represent the cruical essentials of distributed architectures. We extend the description of behavioural distributed patterns by formal specifications defining precise pattern semantics. Furthermore, we model the design process as a series of formal pattern integration and refinement steps. This provides the basis of correctness proofs of design steps. Moreover, design tools implement the formal design operations and provide for substantial practical design-assistance. We apply our formal specification techn..