118 research outputs found
Precisely Analyzing Loss in Interface Adapter Chains
Interface adaptation allows code written for one interface to be used with a
software component with another interface. When multiple adapters are chained
together to make certain adaptations possible, we need a way to analyze how
well the adaptation is done in case there are more than one chains that can be
used. We introduce an approach to precisely analyzing the loss in an interface
adapter chain using a simple form of abstract interpretation.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure. Submitted to IASTED SE 201
Expressiveness and Completeness in Abstraction
We study two notions of expressiveness, which have appeared in abstraction
theory for model checking, and find them incomparable in general. In
particular, we show that according to the most widely used notion, the class of
Kripke Modal Transition Systems is strictly less expressive than the class of
Generalised Kripke Modal Transition Systems (a generalised variant of Kripke
Modal Transition Systems equipped with hypertransitions). Furthermore, we
investigate the ability of an abstraction framework to prove a formula with a
finite abstract model, a property known as completeness. We address the issue
of completeness from a general perspective: the way it depends on certain
abstraction parameters, as well as its relationship with expressiveness.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS/SOS 2012, arXiv:1208.244
Using Flow Specifications of Parameterized Cache Coherence Protocols for Verifying Deadlock Freedom
We consider the problem of verifying deadlock freedom for symmetric cache
coherence protocols. In particular, we focus on a specific form of deadlock
which is useful for the cache coherence protocol domain and consistent with the
internal definition of deadlock in the Murphi model checker: we refer to this
deadlock as a system- wide deadlock (s-deadlock). In s-deadlock, the entire
system gets blocked and is unable to make any transition. Cache coherence
protocols consist of N symmetric cache agents, where N is an unbounded
parameter; thus the verification of s-deadlock freedom is naturally a
parameterized verification problem. Parametrized verification techniques work
by using sound abstractions to reduce the unbounded model to a bounded model.
Efficient abstractions which work well for industrial scale protocols typically
bound the model by replacing the state of most of the agents by an abstract
environment, while keeping just one or two agents as is. However, leveraging
such efficient abstractions becomes a challenge for s-deadlock: a violation of
s-deadlock is a state in which the transitions of all of the unbounded number
of agents cannot occur and so a simple abstraction like the one above will not
preserve this violation. In this work we address this challenge by presenting a
technique which leverages high-level information about the protocols, in the
form of message sequence dia- grams referred to as flows, for constructing
invariants that are collectively stronger than s-deadlock. Efficient
abstractions can be constructed to verify these invariants. We successfully
verify the German and Flash protocols using our technique
Abstract Interpretation for Probabilistic Termination of Biological Systems
In a previous paper the authors applied the Abstract Interpretation approach
for approximating the probabilistic semantics of biological systems, modeled
specifically using the Chemical Ground Form calculus. The methodology is based
on the idea of representing a set of experiments, which differ only for the
initial concentrations, by abstracting the multiplicity of reagents present in
a solution, using intervals. In this paper, we refine the approach in order to
address probabilistic termination properties. More in details, we introduce a
refinement of the abstract LTS semantics and we abstract the probabilistic
semantics using a variant of Interval Markov Chains. The abstract probabilistic
model safely approximates a set of concrete experiments and reports
conservative lower and upper bounds for probabilistic termination
Facilitating modular property-preserving extensions of programming languages
We will explore an approach to modular programming language descriptions and extensions in a denotational style.
Based on a language core, language features are added stepwise on the core. Language features can be described
separated from each other in a self-contained, orthogonal way. We present an extension semantics framework consisting
of mechanisms to adapt semantics of a basic language to new structural requirements in an extended language
preserving the behaviour of programs of the basic language. Common templates of extension are provided. These
can be collected in extension libraries accessible to and extendible by language designers. Mechanisms to extend
these libraries are provided. A notation for describing language features embedding these semantics extensions is
presented
Generalization Strategies for the Verification of Infinite State Systems
We present a method for the automated verification of temporal properties of
infinite state systems. Our verification method is based on the specialization
of constraint logic programs (CLP) and works in two phases: (1) in the first
phase, a CLP specification of an infinite state system is specialized with
respect to the initial state of the system and the temporal property to be
verified, and (2) in the second phase, the specialized program is evaluated by
using a bottom-up strategy. The effectiveness of the method strongly depends on
the generalization strategy which is applied during the program specialization
phase. We consider several generalization strategies obtained by combining
techniques already known in the field of program analysis and program
transformation, and we also introduce some new strategies. Then, through many
verification experiments, we evaluate the effectiveness of the generalization
strategies we have considered. Finally, we compare the implementation of our
specialization-based verification method to other constraint-based model
checking tools. The experimental results show that our method is competitive
with the methods used by those other tools. To appear in Theory and Practice of
Logic Programming (TPLP).Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, 5 table
Bug Hunting with False Negatives Revisited
Safe data abstractions are widely used for verification purposes. Positive verification results can be transferred from the abstract to the concrete system. When a property is violated in the abstract system, one still has to check whether a concrete violation scenario exists. However, even when the violation scenario is not reproducible in the concrete system (a false negative), it may still contain information on possible sources of bugs. Here, we propose a bug hunting framework based on abstract violation scenarios. We first extract a violation pattern from one abstract violation scenario. The violation pattern represents multiple abstract violation scenarios, increasing the chance that a corresponding concrete violation exists. Then, we look for a concrete violation that corresponds to the violation pattern by using constraint solving techniques. Finally, we define the class of counterexamples that we can handle and argue correctness of the proposed framework. Our method combines two formal techniques, model checking and constraint solving. Through an analysis of contracting and precise abstractions, we are able to integrate overapproximation by abstraction with concrete counterexample generation
Labelled transition systems as a Stone space
A fully abstract and universal domain model for modal transition systems and
refinement is shown to be a maximal-points space model for the bisimulation
quotient of labelled transition systems over a finite set of events. In this
domain model we prove that this quotient is a Stone space whose compact,
zero-dimensional, and ultra-metrizable Hausdorff topology measures the degree
of bisimilarity such that image-finite labelled transition systems are dense.
Using this compactness we show that the set of labelled transition systems that
refine a modal transition system, its ''set of implementations'', is compact
and derive a compactness theorem for Hennessy-Milner logic on such
implementation sets. These results extend to systems that also have partially
specified state propositions, unify existing denotational, operational, and
metric semantics on partial processes, render robust consistency measures for
modal transition systems, and yield an abstract interpretation of compact sets
of labelled transition systems as Scott-closed sets of modal transition
systems.Comment: Changes since v2: Metadata updat
Multi-user publishing in the Web : DReSS, a Document Repository Service Station
Many WWW servers contain information written by several authors. These authors either need an account on the server machine, and special permissions to create information in the server space, or else the Webmaster needs to put the information in that space or allow the server to point to the author's own space. We present DReSS, a system to enable authors to deposit (and update) documents on a WWW server, using standard WWW features only. Authors do not need login permission on the server machine, ftp upload access, or even electronic mail. As the documents live in the WWW server space there is no need for the server to be able to access documents outside its space. Thus, our system will work on even the most securely shielded servers (running in a chroot environment). DReSS consists of a set of CGI-scripts and two small auxiliary programs running on the client machine. It can be used with any (HTML-2.0-capable) WWW browser, and with any WWW server. DReSS does not use special features ..
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