A suggested outline for the protocols' specs

[staheri14]

This issue encapsulates a suggested outline for the protocols' specs.

Protocol Overview
The protocol overview may include the followings:

• A Black box description: this part describes the protocol layer as a back box only with its inputs and outputs (just the interface). Also, the list of services that shall be provided by this layer e.g.,
  1. Service 1: description …
  2. Service 2: description …
  3. …
• Security objectives: This part shall formally define the security properties/requirements of each service e.g., the adversarial model, the adversarial parties, and the failure model.

Design
The design section may include the followings:

• Design overview: An overview of the protocol design, including a visualization of the system model e.g., the involved parties, their role, their interaction, and the possible interaction of the protocol with the interface of other layers of the protocol stack.
• Setup: If the services provided by the current layer share some common setup procedure e.g., cryptographic key generation, then that shall be described in the setup subsection and then be referred to during the description of each service (below).
• Specifications: This part details the implementation of each service (i.e., the services listed in the protocol overview).
  1. Service 1: the implementation details…
  2. Service 2: the implementation details …
  3. …

Security
This section highlights the methods utilized to satisfy the security objectives listed in the Protocol Overview section.
Open problems
This part covers the list of open problems and potential improvements concerning security and performance.
Comparison
This part highlights the advantages of the current protocol design over its prior versions or other protocols e.g., comparing waku with whisper.