Compositionality for Improving Model Checking

Model checking is an automatic technique for verifying nite state systems: in this approach, properties are expressed in a temporal logic and systems are modelled as transition systems. A main problem of model checking is state explosion: very complex systems are often represented by transition systems with a prohibitive number of states. The primary cause of this problem is the parallel composition of interacting processes. Many techniques have been proposed to attack this problem, among them compositional techniques. These techniques reduce state explosion exploiting the natural decomposition of complex systems into processes. In this paper we present a formula-based compositional rule that allows us to deduce a property of a parallel composition of processes by checking it only on a component process. Keywords: model checking, compositionality, temporal logic, state explosion. 1