2,758 research outputs found
Cost analysis of nondeterministic probabilistic programs
We consider the problem of expected cost analysis over nondeterministic probabilistic programs,
which aims at automated methods for analyzing the resource-usage of such programs.
Previous approaches for this problem could only handle nonnegative bounded costs.
However, in many scenarios, such as queuing networks or analysis of cryptocurrency protocols,
both positive and negative costs are necessary and the costs are unbounded as well.
In this work, we present a sound and efficient approach to obtain polynomial bounds on the
expected accumulated cost of nondeterministic probabilistic programs.
Our approach can handle (a) general positive and negative costs with bounded updates in
variables; and (b) nonnegative costs with general updates to variables.
We show that several natural examples which could not be
handled by previous approaches are captured in our framework.
Moreover, our approach leads to an efficient polynomial-time algorithm, while no
previous approach for cost analysis of probabilistic programs could guarantee polynomial runtime.
Finally, we show the effectiveness of our approach using experimental results on a variety of programs for which we efficiently synthesize tight resource-usage bounds
Cost Analysis of Nondeterministic Probabilistic Programs
We consider the problem of expected cost analysis over nondeterministic
probabilistic programs, which aims at automated methods for analyzing the
resource-usage of such programs. Previous approaches for this problem could
only handle nonnegative bounded costs. However, in many scenarios, such as
queuing networks or analysis of cryptocurrency protocols, both positive and
negative costs are necessary and the costs are unbounded as well.
In this work, we present a sound and efficient approach to obtain polynomial
bounds on the expected accumulated cost of nondeterministic probabilistic
programs. Our approach can handle (a) general positive and negative costs with
bounded updates in variables; and (b) nonnegative costs with general updates to
variables. We show that several natural examples which could not be handled by
previous approaches are captured in our framework.
Moreover, our approach leads to an efficient polynomial-time algorithm, while
no previous approach for cost analysis of probabilistic programs could
guarantee polynomial runtime. Finally, we show the effectiveness of our
approach by presenting experimental results on a variety of programs, motivated
by real-world applications, for which we efficiently synthesize tight
resource-usage bounds.Comment: A conference version will appear in the 40th ACM Conference on
Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI 2019
IST Austria Technical Report
We consider the problem of expected cost analysis over nondeterministic probabilistic programs, which aims at automated methods for analyzing the resource-usage of such programs. Previous approaches for this problem could only handle nonnegative bounded costs. However, in many scenarios, such as queuing networks or analysis of cryptocurrency protocols, both positive and negative costs are necessary and the costs are unbounded as well.
In this work, we present a sound and efficient approach to obtain polynomial bounds on the expected accumulated cost of nondeterministic probabilistic programs. Our approach can handle (a) general positive and negative costs with bounded updates in variables; and (b) nonnegative costs with general updates to variables. We show that several natural examples which could not be handled by previous approaches are captured in our framework.
Moreover, our approach leads to an efficient polynomial-time algorithm, while no previous approach for cost analysis of probabilistic programs could guarantee polynomial runtime. Finally, we show the effectiveness of our approach by presenting experimental results on a variety of programs, motivated by real-world applications, for which we efficiently synthesize tight resource-usage bounds
Ranking and Repulsing Supermartingales for Reachability in Probabilistic Programs
Computing reachability probabilities is a fundamental problem in the analysis
of probabilistic programs. This paper aims at a comprehensive and comparative
account on various martingale-based methods for over- and under-approximating
reachability probabilities. Based on the existing works that stretch across
different communities (formal verification, control theory, etc.), we offer a
unifying account. In particular, we emphasize the role of order-theoretic fixed
points---a classic topic in computer science---in the analysis of probabilistic
programs. This leads us to two new martingale-based techniques, too. We give
rigorous proofs for their soundness and completeness. We also make an
experimental comparison using our implementation of template-based synthesis
algorithms for those martingales
Automatic Probabilistic Program Verification through Random Variable Abstraction
The weakest pre-expectation calculus has been proved to be a mature theory to
analyze quantitative properties of probabilistic and nondeterministic programs.
We present an automatic method for proving quantitative linear properties on
any denumerable state space using iterative backwards fixed point calculation
in the general framework of abstract interpretation. In order to accomplish
this task we present the technique of random variable abstraction (RVA) and we
also postulate a sufficient condition to achieve exact fixed point computation
in the abstract domain. The feasibility of our approach is shown with two
examples, one obtaining the expected running time of a probabilistic program,
and the other the expected gain of a gambling strategy.
Our method works on general guarded probabilistic and nondeterministic
transition systems instead of plain pGCL programs, allowing us to easily model
a wide range of systems including distributed ones and unstructured programs.
We present the operational and weakest precondition semantics for this programs
and prove its equivalence
Smart Sampling for Lightweight Verification of Markov Decision Processes
Markov decision processes (MDP) are useful to model optimisation problems in
concurrent systems. To verify MDPs with efficient Monte Carlo techniques
requires that their nondeterminism be resolved by a scheduler. Recent work has
introduced the elements of lightweight techniques to sample directly from
scheduler space, but finding optimal schedulers by simple sampling may be
inefficient. Here we describe "smart" sampling algorithms that can make
substantial improvements in performance.Comment: IEEE conference style, 11 pages, 5 algorithms, 11 figures, 1 tabl
On the Complexity of the Equivalence Problem for Probabilistic Automata
Checking two probabilistic automata for equivalence has been shown to be a
key problem for efficiently establishing various behavioural and anonymity
properties of probabilistic systems. In recent experiments a randomised
equivalence test based on polynomial identity testing outperformed
deterministic algorithms. In this paper we show that polynomial identity
testing yields efficient algorithms for various generalisations of the
equivalence problem. First, we provide a randomized NC procedure that also
outputs a counterexample trace in case of inequivalence. Second, we show how to
check for equivalence two probabilistic automata with (cumulative) rewards. Our
algorithm runs in deterministic polynomial time, if the number of reward
counters is fixed. Finally we show that the equivalence problem for
probabilistic visibly pushdown automata is logspace equivalent to the
Arithmetic Circuit Identity Testing problem, which is to decide whether a
polynomial represented by an arithmetic circuit is identically zero.Comment: technical report for a FoSSaCS'12 pape
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