Formal techniques for networked and distributed systems

The IFIP TC6 WG 6.1 Joint International Conference on Formal Techniques for Networked and Distributed Systems, FORTE 2002, was held this year at Rice University, Houston, Texas, on November 11–14. This annual conference provides a forum for researchers and practitioners from universities and industry to meet and advance technologies in areas of speci? cation, testing, and veri? cation of distributed systems and communication protocols. The main topics are: – FDT-based system and protocol engineering. – Semantical foundations. – Extensions of FDTs. – Formal approaches to concurrent/distributed object-oriented systems. – Real-time and probability aspects. – Performance modeling and analysis. – Quality of service modeling and analysis. – Veri? cation and validation. – Relations between informal and formal speci? cation. – FDT-based protocol implementation. – Software tools and support environments. – FDT application to distributed systems. – Protocol testing, including conformance testing, interoperability testing, and performance testing. – Test generation, selection, and coverage. – Practical experience and case studies. – Corporate strategic and ? nancial consequences of using formal methods. A total of 61 papers were submitted to FORTE 2002, and reviewed by m- bers of the program committee and additional reviewers. The program committee selected 22 regular papers, two tool papers, and two posters for presentation at the conference. The program also included three tutorials and ? ve invited talks.