Systematic design of call-coverage features

Abstract

Feature interaction is a severe practical problem in the design and maintenance of telecommunication software. The Distributed Feature Composition (DFC) virtual architecture provides a new formal foundation for large-scale, modular description of telecommunication features. It also provides a semantic structure within which feature interactions can be diagnosed, and undesirable ones can be prevented or cured. This approach is illustrated by a systematic treatment of the interactions among the class of “call coverage” features. Language semantics and analysis techniques link this domain-specific reasoning to formal verification of system properties.