ProtoTalk: A Generative Software Engineering Framework for Prototyping Protocols in Smalltalk

Network protocols are complex systems implemented by collections of equally complex software components. In many cases, the realization of such protocols requires extensive prototyping and experimentation with different alternative implementations.In this paper, we present ProtoTalk, a generative, domain-specific software framework that utilizes model driven software engineering principles for prototyping state and message driven protocols with emphasis on telecommunication and network protocols. The framework allows first, for modeling a variety of common protocol features by using mappings from state machines, sequence diagrams and packet encodings to ProtoTalk models, and second, for the consequent automatic generation of prototype Smalltalk code from the aforementioned ProtoTalk models. In this respect, the paper attempts to shed light on the use of generative model driven programming techniques within reflective object oriented programming languages and environments. As a proof of concept, we have specified in ProtoTalk and consequently generated in Smalltalk, several core features of the session initiation protocol.