Protocols allow the specification for a set of Artifact: Capsule ports to be defined and reused. The protocol defines a set of incoming and outgoing message types (e.g.
operations, signals), and optionally a collaboration (usually consisting of a set of sequence diagrams, see Guideline: Sequence Diagram) which defines the required ordering of messages, and a
state machine (described by a set of statechart diagrams, see Guideline: Statechart Diagram) which specifies the abstract behavior that the participants in a protocol must provide.
A protocol is a specification of desired behavior that can take place over a connector -- an explicit
specification of the contractual agreement between the participants in the protocol. It is pure behavior and does not
specify any structural elements. A protocol comprises a set of participants, each of which plays a specific role in the
protocol.
Each such protocol role is specified by a unique name and a set of signals that are received by that role as
well as the set of signals that are sent by that role (either set could be empty). As an option, a protocol can also
have a specification of the valid communication sequences; a state machine may specify this. Finally, a protocol may
also have a set of prototypical interaction sequences (these can be shown as sequence diagrams). These must conform to
the protocol state machine, if one is defined.
Binary protocols, involving just two participants, are by far the most common and the simplest to specify. One
advantage of these protocols is that only one role, called the base role, needs to be specified. The other,
called the conjugate, can be derived from the base role simply by inverting the incoming and outgoing signal
sets. This inversion operation is known as conjugation.
Composition of <<protocol>> class.
As noted in above figure, a protocol typically contains one or more sequence diagrams which illustrate the valid
message exchange sequences specified by the protocol. The protocol also consists of a set of incoming (request)
messages and a set of outgoing (response) messages. An optional state machine can be used to specify the behavior that
participants in the protocol must support.
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