Proving Distributed Algorithms by Combining Refinement and Local Computations

Abstract : Abstract: Our approach is directly related to the design of correct-by-construction programs. The main idea relies upon the development of distributed algorithms fol- lowing a top/down approach, which is clearly well known in earlier works of Dijkstra, and to use the refinement for controlling the correctness of the resulting algorithm. It relies on a more fundamental question related to the notion of problem to solve. The methodology can be based on incremental proof-based developments. However, the link between the problem and the first model remains to be expressed and the refine- ment is a real help to justify in a very progressive way the choices of design. We propose in this work a framework combining local computations and refinement to prove the correctness of a large class of distributed algorithms.