A Channel into Object-Oriented Protocol Design (Kannel)

The constantly growing complexity of distributed and telecommunications applications has made it necessary to develop high-level application-oriented languages and tools. There exists a number of standardized languages and their implementations in the area, but usually they focus just on some rather narrow aspect of the problem. This makes it necessary to use several unrelated languages and environments when developing a nontrivial distributed application.

This research project develops Kannel, an integrated language for the design and implementation of communication protocols. The main features of Kannel are high-level application support, object-orientation, sound protocol refinement, and visual notations. In contrast to conventional languages in the area, Kannel and its programming environment provide facilities for all the main tasks in a typical protocol development effort.

The first version of Kannel has been implemented. The environment includes a visual Kannel editor, a translator into C++, and a graphical animator/debugger.

The members of the research group are Assoc. Prof. Jukka Paakki (group leader), M.Sc. Kari Granö, and M.Sc. Antti-Pekka Tuovinen.

Publications: [10, 17, 24, 99].

Home Page: http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/research/kannel/