An Overview of MSR(C): A CLP-based Framework for the Symbolic Verification of Parameterized Concurrent Systems

AbstractIn recent works we have defined a general framework for the validation of parameterized concurrent systems based on the combination of multiset rewriting and constraints. The class of systems we are interested in consists of concurrent systems parametric in the number of individual components.Our framework provides the following features: 1.a specification language for the class of concurrent systems taken into consideration;2.an assertional language to finitely represent infinite sets of configurations; and3.a sound and fully automatic verification method based on symbolic state exploration.The verification procedure has been implemented in a Constraint Logic Programming systems, namely Sicstus Prolog and the clp(Q,R) library. CLP provides in fact all necessary operations to manipulate multisets and constraints both as uninterpreted and interpreted objects. Operations over constraints are delegated in fact to the clp(Q,R) library, and encapsulated into Sicstus Prolog predicates. The method can be applied to solve validation problems for communication protocols, and (potentially) of security and authentication protocols and abstractions of concurrent programs.In this paper we overview the main features of our framework and comment on some of the more interesting applications

Type-based Self-stabilisation for Computational Fields

Emerging network scenarios require the development of solid large-scale situated systems. Unfortunately, the diffusion/aggregation computational processes therein often introduce a source of complexity that hampers predictability of the overall system behaviour. Computational fields have been introduced to help engineering such systems: they are spatially distributed data structures designed to adapt their shape to the topology of the underlying (mobile) network and to the events occurring in it, with notable applications to pervasive computing, sensor networks, and mobile robots. To assure behavioural correctness, namely, correspondence of micro-level specification (single device behaviour) with macro-level behaviour (resulting global spatial pattern), we investigate the issue of self-stabilisation for computational fields. We present a tiny, expressive, and type-sound calculus of computational fields, and define sufficient conditions for self-stabilisation, defined as the ability to react to changes in the environment finding a new stable state in finite time. A type-based approach is used to provide a correct checking procedure for self-stabilisation.Comment: Logical Methods in Computer Science accepted paper, 53 page