This report deals with the formal specification and verification of distributed leader election algorithms for a set of machines connected by a unidirectional ring network. Starting from an algorithm proposed by Le~Lann in 1977, and its variant proposed by Chang and Roberts in 1979, we study the robustness of this class of algorithms in presence of unreliable communication medium and/or unreliable machines. We suggest various improvements of these algorithms in order to obtain a fully fault-tolerant protocol. These algorithms are formally described using the ISO specification language LOTOS and verified (for a fixed number of machines) using the CADP (CÆSAR/ALDEBARAN) toolbox. Model-checking and bisimulation techniques allow the verification of these non-trivial algorithms to be carried out automatically
