Reference

Notation

This page is not normative

This page is not considered a core part of the Vultron Protocol as proposed in the main documentation. Although within the page we might provide guidance in terms of SHOULD, MUST, etc., the content here is not normative.

Defining the Vultron Protocol involves a lot of notation. This page is the reference for the set-theory, logic, and deterministic finite automaton (DFA) symbols used in the formal protocol and the process-model formal pages, and for the diagram forms used throughout the documentation. The call-out boxes and the normative-page banners the documentation uses are described on Documentation Conventions.

Mathematical Notation

All of these definitions assume the standard Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory. The following notation is used:

Set Theory Symbols

Symbol	Meaning
\(\{ \dots \}\)	depending on the context: (1) an ordered set in which the items occur in that sequence, or (2) a tuple of values
|\(x\)|	the count of the number of elements in a list, set, tuple, or vector \(x\)
\(\subset,=,\subseteq\)	the normal proper subset, equality, and subset relations between sets
\(\in\)	the membership (is-in) relation between an element and the set it belongs to
\(\prec\)	the precedes relation on members of an ordered set: \(\sigma_i \prec \sigma_j \textrm{ if and only if } \sigma_i,\sigma_j \in s \textrm{ and } i < j\) where \(s\) is an ordered set
|\(X\)|	the size of (the number of elements in) a set \(X\)
\(\langle X_i \rangle^N_{i=1}\)	a set of \(N\) sets \(X_i\), indexed by \(i\); used in the Formal Protocol in the context of Communicating Finite State Machines, taken from the article On Communicating Finite State Machines by Brand and Zafiropulo

Logic Symbols

Symbol	Meaning
\(\implies\)	implies
\(\iff\)	if-and-only-if (bi-directional implication)
\(\wedge\)	the logical AND operator
\(\lnot\)	the logical NOT operator

Directional Messaging Symbols

Symbol	Meaning
\(\rightharpoonup{}\)	a message emitted (sent) by a process
\(\leftharpoondown{}\)	a message received by a process

DFA Symbols

Symbol	Meaning
\(\xrightarrow{}\)	a transition between states, usually labeled with the transition type (e.g., \(\xrightarrow{a}\))
\((\mathcal{Q},q_0,\mathcal{F},\Sigma,\delta)\)	specific symbols for individual DFA components that are introduced when needed in Chapters
\(\Big \langle { \langle S_i \rangle }^N_{i=1}, { \langle o_i \rangle }^N_{i=1}, { \langle M_{i,j} \rangle}^N_{i,j=1}, { succ } \Big \rangle\)	formal protocol symbols that are introduced at the beginning of the Formal Protocol

Diagram Notation

A variety of diagramming techniques are used throughout the documentation.

State Diagrams

Depictions of DFA as figures use common state diagram symbols, as shown in the example below.

stateDiagram-v2
    direction LR
    [*] --> q0
    q0 --> q1 : a
    q0 --> q2 : b
    q1 --> q2 : a
    q1 --> q1 : b
    q2 --> q0 : a
    q2 --> q1 : b
    q2 --> [*]

Sequence and Class Diagrams

Sequence and class diagrams follow Unified Modeling Language (UML) conventions

---
title: Sequence Diagram Example
---
sequenceDiagram
    participant A as Alice
    participant B as Bob
    A ->> B: Authentication Request
    B->>A: Authentication Response

---
title: Class Diagram Example
---
classDiagram
    Class01 <|-- Class02
    Class03 *-- Class04
    Class05 o-- Class06
    Class07 .. Class08

Behavior Tree Diagrams

A few additional notation details specific to Behavior Trees are introduced when needed.