WG211/M2Consel

Title:

A Domain-Specific Language for Telephony Services - A Progress Report

Charles Consel

Abstract: Modern telephony is increasingly relying on the IP network. As a consequence, modern telephony platforms are distributed systems, based on a client-server model and standardized protocols. The shift of telephony to the computer network realm has brought a number of benefits in terms of versatility and openness. However, this evolution has created a number of software engineering challenges. Notably,

• Telephony services are no longer a monopoly of the manufacturers. This raises a number of safety and security issues on services that are no longer certified by a manufacturer.

• Although accessible, programming telephony services requires an intimate knowledge of a number of topics: the telephony domain, the underlying protocols, a given platform and its programming interface.

We believe that these challenges can be addressed by the domain-specific language approach. We have designed a domain-specific language, called SPL (Session Processing Language), that abstracts over the intricacies of the telephony domain and platforms. To ensure safety and security of a telephony service written in SPL, the language is both restricted and enriched, compared to a general-purpose language.

In this talk, we present the key challenges for developing telephony services. We introduce the SPL language, its key concepts and abstractions, and illustrate it with examples. We briefly sketch its formalization. Finally, we list some safety and security properties that are enabled by the language.