
180 Park Ave, Bldg. 103, Room D205
Florham Park, NJ
http://www.research.att.com/~pamela
Subject matter expert in IP telecommunications, IP-based multimedia systems, feature interaction, software specification, software requirements, software architecture, formal methods
I study networking from the top down: starting from application requirements and working downward to software architectures and network infrastructure.
AT&T Fellow, 2009.
For groundbreaking use of formal methods in AT&T's telecommunications and IP services and for enduring contributions to software theory.
IPTCOMM Best Paper Award, 2009.
For paper entitled, "Abstractions for Programming SIP Back-to-Back User Agents".
ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award, 2007.
For paper entitled, "Matching and merging of Statecharts specifications".
Science & Technology Medal, 2006.
Honored for groundbreaking research and application of formal software methods to telecommunication software within AT&T and long-term fundamental contributions to formal software theory, methodology.
ICSE Ten-Year Most Influential Paper Award, 2005.
For paper entitled, "Deriving specifications from requirements: An example".
AT&T Strategic Patent Award, 2004.
For "Telecommunications network system and method," U.S Patent 6160883.
ISRE Ten-Year Most Influential Paper Award, 2003.
For paper entitled," Domain descriptions".
IWFI Best Paper Award, 2003.
For paper entitled, "Ideal address translation: Principles, properties, and applications".
ACM Fellow, 2002.
For encouraging the use of formal methods in the development of telecommunication software through influential research, tool development, large case studies, and professional education.
IEEE Software Best Paper Award, 1990.
For paper entitled,"A compositional approach to multiparadigm programming".
Method And Apparatus For Programming Session Initiation Protocol Back-To-Back User Agents,
Tue Aug 21 12:53:18 EDT 2012
In one embodiment, the present disclosure is a method and apparatus for programming session initiation protocol back-to-back user agents. In one embodiment, a method for programming a telecommunication feature as a session initiation protocol back-to-back user agent includes receiving source code defining the feature, the source code using at least one abstraction that hides session initiation protocol signaling details required by the feature and generating executable code that causes a session initiation protocol server to execute the feature, in accordance with the abstractions.
Method And Apparatus For Managing Audio Contention In Networks,
Tue May 15 12:52:04 EDT 2012
A method and an apparatus for managing an audio contention are disclosed. For example, the method receives a request by a device, and enters into a first state by the device, wherein the first state allows the device to use an audio channel in an upstream direction, wherein the device in the first state determines at least one of: a failure outcome for the request, a success outcome for the request or a continue outcome for the request.
Method For Address Translation In Telecommunication Features,
Tue Feb 28 12:50:54 EST 2012
A method for address translation in telecommunication networks that reduces the feature-interaction problems is disclosed. In one embodiment, a module in a target region of a request chain is constrained in a way such that that module cannot change a source address in a call request. In a second embodiment, a source feature module in a source region can only replace a source address with a more abstract address than the one it is replacing. In another embodiment, a target feature module in a target region can only replace a target address with a more concrete address than the one it is replacing. In yet another embodiment, a source feature module cannot transmit downstream an alternative source address more concrete than its own address. And in a final embodiment, a target feature module cannot transmit upstream an alternative target address that is more concrete than its own address.
Method And Apparatus For Compositional Control Of End-To-End Media In IP Networks,
Tue Dec 07 15:50:47 EST 2010
A method and apparatus for controlling end-to-end media on packet networks such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Service over Internet Protocol (SoIP) networks are disclosed. The present method provides an algorithm to be run by channel terminations such that the media channel is controlled by compositional actions. For example, the servers that terminate the media channel are able to respond on behalf of an endpoint in order to effect the appropriate compositional action. The present method also enables each direction of a bi-directional media channel to be controlled independent of the media channel in the opposite direction.
Telecommunications network system and method,
Tue Dec 23 15:45:00 EST 2008
A telecommunications network system and method is presented incorporating a distributed feature composition (DFC) architecture, offering new technology for feature specification and composition. In the network architecture of the invention, customer calls are processed by dynamically assembled configurations of filter-like components: each component implements an applicable feature, and communicates with its neighbors by featureless internal calls that are connected by the underlying architectural substrate. Features are coherently accumulated, and the problem of feature interaction is rendered much more tractable.
Methods and apparatus for utilizing user software to communicate with network-resident services,
Tue Oct 14 14:58:19 EDT 2008
Popular operating systems for user devices, such as personal computers (PCs), PDAs, pocketPCs, smartphones, and similar such personal devices, typically come bundled with software that is already installed, maintained and run on a user's computer, namely, a non-specialized HTTP client/web browser and a non-specialized instant messaging client. A device is described which presents a user's instant messaging client and HTTP client/web browser as a unified device for handling real-time user interactions with a network resident application. Since this device represents a network application's interface to a user it is termed a pseudodevice. The pseudodevice, which interfaces with network application software, formats user queries as hyperlinked instant messages that are then sent to the user. The user responds by clicking on a hyperlinked message, which invokes the user's web browser and causes the browser to convey the response as an HTTP request back to the pseudodevice. The pseudodevice adapts communication to the user device depending upon the HTTP requests it receives.
Routing extensions for telecommunication network system and method,
Tue Jun 10 14:58:20 EDT 2008
A distributed features system is disclosed which permits a telecommunication network to accommodate the creation of open multimedia services. It is an object of the present invention to create an architecture that facilitates modularity and compositional service creation. It is another object of the present invention to support multimedia services, e.g. services that include voice, graphics, video and text components. It is another object of the present invention to provide an architecture that is general, flexible, permits third party feature development, and can interact with other networks.
Telecommunications network system and method,
Tue Nov 13 14:58:20 EST 2007
A telecommunications network system and method is presented incorporating a distributed feature composition (DFC) architecture, offering new technology for feature specification and composition. In the network architecture of the invention, customer calls are processed by dynamically assembled configurations of filter-like components: each component implements an applicable feature, and communicates with its neighbors by featureless internal calls that are connected by the underlying architectural substrate. Features are coherently accumulated, and the problem of feature interaction is rendered much more tractable.
Telecommunication network system and method in communication services using session initiation protocol,
Tue Jul 31 14:58:21 EDT 2007
An implementation of a voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) system for accomplishing two-way, three-way and conference calling between two or more parties is disclosed, in which new call features are readily adapted. The VoIP system is implemented in a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) framework in which aspects of Distributed Feature Composition (DFC) architecture are modified and applied to overcome known limitations in the adaptability of existing VoIP frameworks.
Routing optimizations for telecommunications network system and method,
Tue Jan 23 14:58:21 EST 2007
A distributed features system is disclosed which permits a telecommunication network to efficiently distribute data related to network addresses.
Routing extensions for telecommunication network system and method,
Tue Jan 24 14:58:22 EST 2006
A distributed features system is disclosed which permits a telecommunication network to accommodate the creation of open multimedia services. It is an object of the present invention to create an architecture that facilitates. modularity and compositional service creation. It is another object of the present invention to support multimedia services, e.g. services that include voice, graphics, video and text components. It is another object of the present invention to provide an architecture that is general, flexible, permits third party feature development, and can interact with other networks
Routing Optimizations For Telecommunications Network System And Method,
Tue Dec 07 14:58:22 EST 2004
A distributed features system is disclosed which permits a telecommunication network to efficiently distribute data related to network addresses.
Telecommunications Network System And Method,
Tue Nov 30 14:58:23 EST 2004
A telecommunications network system and method is presented incorporating a distributed feature composition (DFC) architecture, offering new technology for feature specification and composition. In the network architecture of the invention, customer calls are processed by dynamically assembled configurations of filter-like components: each component implements an applicable feature, and communicates with its neighbors by featureless internal calls that are connected by the underlying architectural substrate. Features are coherently accumulated, and the problem of feature interaction is rendered much more tractable.
Protocol Extensions For Telecommunications Network,
Tue Nov 23 14:58:23 EST 2004
A distributed features system is disclosed which permits a telecommunication network to accommodate the creation of open multimedia services. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, protocol extensions for a distributed feature system are disclosed which accommodate a broader range of media choices than conventional telephony. Protocols are disclosed for internal calls between modules in the distributed feature system that permit a module to open and close any number of media channels to be utilized in the communication usage. A protocol is also disclosed for internal calls between modules in the distributed feature system that is more appropriate for a packet-switched reference implementation.
Signaling/media separation for telecommunication network system and method,
Tue Aug 17 14:58:24 EDT 2004
It is an object of the present invention to provide a general-purpose media layer for a distributed feature system. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a distributed feature system environment is disclosed in which paths carrying media, e.g. voice or text, are fully separated from signaling paths. A plurality of media processing components are utilized to establish media channels separate from signaling channels and wherein each media processing component is assigned to one or more feature components in the distributed feature system.
Telecommunications network system and method,
Tue Jun 11 14:58:25 EDT 2002
A telecommunications network system and method is presented incorporating a distributed feature composition (DFC) architecture, offering new technology for feature specification and composition. In the network architecture of the invention, customer calls are processed by dynamically assembled configurations of filter-like components: each component implements an applicable feature, and communicates with its neighbors by featureless internal calls that are connected by the underlying architectural substrate. Features are coherently accumulated, and the problem of feature interaction is rendered much more tractable.
Telecommunications network system and method,
Tue Dec 12 14:58:25 EST 2000
A telecommunications network system and method is presented incorporating a distributed feature composition (DFC) architecture, offering new technology for feature specification and composition. In the network architecture of the invention, customer calls are processed by dynamically assembled configurations of filter-like components: each component implements an applicable feature, and communicates with its neighbors by featureless internal calls that are connected by the underlying architectural substrate. Features are coherently accumulated, and the problem of feature interaction is rendered much more tractable.
Modularity in Distributed Feature Composition
Pamela Zave
Bashar Nuseibeh,Pamela Zave,
Software Requirements and Design: The Work of Michael Jackson,
2009.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Compositional control of IP media
Pamela Zave, Eric Cheung
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering,
v35,
#1,
2009.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Abstractions for programming SIP back-to-back user agents
Pamela Zave, Gregory W. Bond, Eric Cheung, Thomas M. Smith
Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Principles, Systems and Applicatons of IP Telecommunications,
ACM SIGCOMM,
2009.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Understanding SIP through model-checking
Pamela Zave
Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Principles, Systems and Applications of IP Telecommunications,
Springer-Verlag LNCS 5310,
pp 256-279,
2008.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Generalized third-party call control in SIP networks
Eric Cheung, Pamela Zave
Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Principles, Systems and Applications of IP Telecommunications,
Springer-Verlag LNCS 5310,
pp 45-68,
2008.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Audio feature interactions in voice-over-IP
Pamela Zave
Proceedings of the First International Conference on Principles, Systems and Applications of IP Telecommunications,
ACM SIGCOMM,
pp 67-78,
2007.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Compositional control of IP media
Pamela Zave, Eric Cheung
Proceedings of the Second Conference on Future Networking Technologies (CoNEXT),
ACM SIGCOMM,
2006.
[BIB]
Compositional binding in network domains
Pamela Zave
Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Symposium on Formal Methods,
Springer-Verlag LNCS 4085,
pp 332-347,
2006.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Experience with component-based development of a telecommunication service
Gregory W. Bond, Eric Cheung, Healfdene H. Goguen, Karrie J. Hanson, Don Henderson, Gerald M. Karam, K. Hal Purdy, Thomas M. Smith, Pamela Zave
Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Component-Based Software Engineering,
Springer-Verlag LNCS 3489,
pp 298-305,
2005.
[PDF]
[BIB]
A formal model of addressing for interoperating networks
Pamela Zave
Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Symposium on Formal Methods,
Springer-Verlag LNCS 3582,
pp 318-333,
2005.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Component coordination: A telecommunication case study
Pamela Zave, Healfdene H. Goguen, Thomas M. Smith
Computer Networks,
v45,
#5,
pp 645-664,
2004.
[PDF]
[BIB]
An open architecture for next-generation telecommunication services
Gregory W. Bond, Eric Cheung, K. Hal Purdy, Pamela Zave, J. Christopher Ramming
ACM Transactions on Internet Technology,
v4,
#1,
pp 83-123,
2004.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Address translation in telecommunication features
Pamela Zave
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology,
v13,
#1,
pp 1-36,
2004.
[PDF]
[BIB]
An experiment in feature engineering
Pamela Zave
Annabelle McIver and Carroll Morgan,
Programming Methodology,
Springer-Verlag,
pp 353-377,
2003.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Requirements for evolving systems: A telecommunications perspective
Pamela Zave
Proceedings of the Fifth IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering,
IEEE Computer Society,
pp 2-9,
2001.
[PDF]
[BIB]
A reference model for requirements and specifications
Carl A. Gunter, Elsa L. Gunter, Michael Jackson, Pamela Zave
IEEE Software,
v17,
#3,
pp 37-43,
2000.
[PDF]
[BIB]
`Calls considered harmful' and other observations: A tutorial on telephony
Pamela Zave
Services and Visualizaton: Towards User-Friendly Design,
Springer-Verlag LNCS 1385,
pp 8-27,
1998.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Distributed Feature Composition: A virtual architecture for telecommunications services
Michael Jackson, Pamela Zave
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering,
v24,
#10,
pp 831-847,
1998.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Four dark corners of requirements engineering
Pamela Zave, Michael Jackson
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology,
v6,
#1,
pp 1-30,
1997.
[PS]
[BIB]
Where do operations come from? A multiparadigm specification technique
Pamela Zave, Michael Jackson
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering,
v22,
#7,
pp 508-528,
1996.
[PS]
[BIB]
Multiparadigm specification of an AT&T switching system
Peter Mataga, Pamela Zave
Applications of Formal Methods,
Prentice Hall Intl.,
1995.
[BIB]
Deriving specifications from requirements: An example
Michael Jackson, Pamela Zave
Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Software Engineering,
ACM Press,
pp 15-24,
1995.
[BIB]
Conjunction as composition
Pamela Zave, Michael Jackson
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology,
v2,
#4,
pp 379-411,
1993.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Using Lightweight Modeling to Understand Chord
Pamela Zave
SIGCOMM Computer Communications Review,
2012.
[PDF]
[BIB]
{Modeling in Alloy and analysis with the Alloy Analyzer is used to
improve our understanding of the correctness of
the Chord ring-maintenance protocol.
Correctness in this case would mean that every member of the network
is eventually reachable from every other, which is a more fundamental
notion of correctness than key or data consistency.
No published version of Chord is correct, although a version selecting
the best pieces from several papers may be correct.
The paper discusses the significance of these results, and how
lightweight modeling can contribute to protocol design.}
StratoSIP - SIP at a Very High Level
Eric Cheung, Thomas Smith, Gregory Bond, Pamela Zave
IPTComm 2011,
2011.
[PDF]
[BIB]
ACM Copyright
(c) ACM, 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in IPTComm 2011 , 2011-08-01.
{Voice-over-IP holds the promise of opening up the telecom domain to a vast community of developers. However, due to the nature of real-time multi-party communication and the complexity of the protocol, writing SIP applications that operate correctly and robustly is very challenging and requires in-depth knowledge. Even with standardized programming paradigms such as the Java-based SIP Servlet API, SIP application programming remains difficult.
StratoSIP [1] is a new domain-specific language designed to make the development task much easier and accessible to programmers with little knowledge of SIP. It will be released as open source software in 2011. As well, an applica- tion written using StratoSIP will be deployed in a mission-critical conferencing service in 2Q 2011. This demonstra- tion will show a typical StratoSIP development cycle using this conferencing application as a use case. The goal is to demonstrate how the high-level abstractions offered by StratoSIP make it very easy to program complex call control, and how the underlying StratoSIP runtime library ensures correct and robust operation even under protocol races.}

Mid-Call, Multi-Party, and Multi-Device Telecommunication Features and Their Interactions
Pamela Zave
Principles, Systems and Applications of IP Telecommunications,
2011.
[PDF]
[BIB]
ACM Copyright
(c) ACM, 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Principles, Systems and Applications of IP Telecommunications, 2011-08-01.
{Mid-call telecommunication features act only after an initial media connection has been set up. Many mid-call features perform complex functions such as handling multiple far parties and multiple devices. They cause many important feature interactions that are little known and poorly understood. Using the example of personal features associated with a mobile phone, this paper presents a general method for analyzing the interactions of mid-call features with each other and with other features in a service. The paper discusses how to determine the most desirable behavior of interacting features. It also shows, as a proof of existence, how to manage these interactions in pipes-and-filter implementations of telecommunication services.}
Experiences with protocol description
Pamela Zave
Workshop on Rigorous Protocol Engineering,
2011.
[PDF]
[BIB]
{This paper presents three conclusions about the
description of protocols, based on extensive experience:
(1) Informal methods are inadequate for widely used protocols.
(2) Lightweight formal methods are easy and useful.
(3) Informal natural language cannot be trusted, but natural-language
paraphrases of formal language can be trusted for certain purposes.
None of these conclusions will be new or surprising
to participants in this workshop.
The purpose of this paper is to provide new, specific,
and relevant evidence
for these conclusions, in the hopes that researchers can use this
evidence to justify their methods and influence the thinking of
others.}
Specification and evaluation of transparent behavior for SIP back-to-back user agents
Gregory Bond, Eric Cheung, Thomas Smith, Pamela Zave
4th International Conference on Principles, Systems and Applications of IP Telecommunications,
2010.
[PDF]
[BIB]
ACM Copyright
(c) ACM, 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution.
The definitive version was published in Proc. of the 4th International Conference on Principles, Systems, and Applications of IP , 2010-08-02.
{A back-to-back user agent (B2BUA) is a powerful mechanism for realizing
complex SIP applications. The ability to create, terminate, and modify SIP
dialogs allows the creation of arbitrarily complex services. However, B2BUAs
must be designed with care so as not to disrupt service interoperability. A
commonly-stated goal is for B2BUAs to be as {it transparent} as possible
while achieving its design goals. Though the notion of transparency is
intuitively appealing, it is difficult to define. To address this issue,
this paper proposes a definition of transparency and
presents a formal model of a transparent B2BUA to serve as the
specification of transparency. From this specification, we identify issues
with both the realizability and desirability of this behavior, and suggest
modifications to the original model. We evaluate the behavior of a number of
public B2BUA implementations via testing, using some novel techniques to
create test cases based on the formal models.}

Internet Evolution and the Role of Software Engineering
Pamela Zave
The Future of Software Engineering,
2010.
[PDF]
[BIB]
Springer Copyright
The definitive version was published in Proceedings of the Future of Software Engineering Symposium. , 2010-11-22
{The classic Internet architecture is a victim of its own success.
Having succeeded so well at empowering users and encouraging innovation, it has been made obsolete by explosive growth in users, traffic, applications, and threats.
For the past decade, the networking community has been focused on the many deficiencies of the current Internet and the possible paths toward a better future Internet.
This paper explains why the Internet is likely to evolve toward multiple application-specific architectures running on multiple virtual networks, rather than having a single architecture.
Because of this direction of evolution, there are many opportunities for the participation of software engineers, and the software-engineering perspective is most urgently needed.}
Abstractions for Programming SIP Back-to-Back User Agents
Pamela Zave, Gregory Bond, Eric Cheung, Thomas Smith
Third International Conference on Principles, Systems and Applications of IP Telecommunications,
2009.
[BIB]
{In SIP services, {it back-to-back user agents (B2BUAs)} are powerful but difficult to program correctly. StratoSIP is a high-level, domain-specific language for programming SIP B2BUAs safely. This paper describes the four major abstractions on which the language is based. It explains how each abstraction is used in programming, and how it is implemented in SIP. Because the abstractions are derived from the Distributed Feature Composition (DFC) architecture, StratoSIP programs compose easily with each other at runtime. The implementation of StratoSIP runs in SIP Servlet containers. }
Component coordination: A telecommunication case study
Pamela Zave, Healfdene Goguen, Thomas Smith
Computer Networks: The International Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking - Special,
2004.
[BIB]
{Personal mobility is probably the most desired of all telecommunication capabilities, but it presents many design difficulties. This paper explains some of the difficulties, and shows how they can be overcome with the help of a component architecture. Two component coordination mechanisms are emphasized, one novel and one used in an unusual way. These mechanisms may be useful in other distributed applications besides telecommunications. }