Automated rare event simulation for stochastic petri nets

We introduce a method to automatically apply rare event simulation to stochastic Petri nets, which are often used in the stochastic model checking community to model highly reliable systems. Rare event simulation can be much faster than standard simulation by exploiting information about the typical behaviour of the system. Previously, such information came from heuristics, human insight, or analysis on the full state space. We present a formal algorithm that obtains the required information from the (high-level) stochastic Petri net description, without generating the full state space. Essentially, our algorithm reduces the state space of the model to a (much smaller) graph in which each node represents a set of states for which the most likely path to failure has the same form. An earlier version of this work has been presented to the model checking commmunity (at QEST 2013). We believe that the described methodology, which has since then been improved through a correctness proof and a more efficient initial state space partitioning, may also be of interest to the RESIM community

On Optimization of Dynamical Material Flow Systems Using Simulation

Up until now risk analysis, as a rule, ended with the estimation of the risks. Further improvements -- optimal design, risk control, dynamic risk management -- require many more efforts. Essential difficulties are connected with the discontinuous or nonsmooth behavior of performance functions with respect to the control and (or) random parameters due to possible failures of the system's parts. Usually, the systems also include discrete event elements -- logical rules can change the structure of the system if some constraints are not satisfied, for example safety constraints. These problems require new formal analysis tools which will include dynamics, stochastics, nonsmoothness and discontinuity. In this paper, the authors consider a simple example of such a problem with the aim to explore the possibilities for its analysis. The problem is comprised of optimizing a material flow system based on an efficient use of simulation. The material flow system may be a production system, a distribution system or a pollutant-deposit/removal system. The important characteristic which is considered in this paper is that one of the components of the dynamic system is unreliable. This characteristic leads to simulation models in which criteria are discontinuous with respect to the optimization parameters. This makes it difficult to use the standard methods for the estimation of gradients of the expected criteria values. A method is introduced which overcomes the difficulty. From a formal point of view the problem can be viewed as a mixed integer stochastic optimization problem

A Scalable Data Dissemination Protocol Based on Vehicles Trajectories Analysis

International audienceSince the last decade, the emergence of affordable wireless devices in vehicle ad-hoc networks has been a key step towards improving road safety as well as transport efficiency. Informing vehicles about interesting safety and non-safety events is of key interest. Thus, the design of an efficient data dissemination protocol has been of paramount importance. A careful scrutiny of the pioneering vehicle-to-vehicle data dissemination approaches highlights that geocasting is the most feasible approach for VANET applications, more especially in safety applications, since safety events are of interest mainly to vehicles located within a specific area, commonly called ZOR or Zone Of Relevance, close to the event. Indeed, the most challenging issue in geocast protocols is the definition of the ZOR for a given event dissemination. In this paper, we introduce a new geocast approach, called Data Dissemination Protocol based on Map Splitting (DPMS). The main thrust of DPMS consists of building the zones of relevance through the mining of correlations between vehicles' trajectories and crossed regions. To do so, we rely on the Formal Concept Analysis (FCA), which is a method of extracting interesting clusters from relational data. The performed experiments show,that DPMS outperforms its competitors in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Scalable discovery of hybrid process models in a cloud computing environment

Process descriptions are used to create products and deliver services. To lead better processes and services, the first step is to learn a process model. Process discovery is such a technique which can automatically extract process models from event logs. Although various discovery techniques have been proposed, they focus on either constructing formal models which are very powerful but complex, or creating informal models which are intuitive but lack semantics. In this work, we introduce a novel method that returns hybrid process models to bridge this gap. Moreover, to cope with today’s big event logs, we propose an efficient method, called f-HMD, aims at scalable hybrid model discovery in a cloud computing environment. We present the detailed implementation of our approach over the Spark framework, and our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is efficient and scalabl

Can Component/Service-Based Systems Be Proved Correct?

Component-oriented and service-oriented approaches have gained a strong enthusiasm in industries and academia with a particular interest for service-oriented approaches. A component is a software entity with given functionalities, made available by a provider, and used to build other application within which it is integrated. The service concept and its use in web-based application development have a huge impact on reuse practices. Accordingly a considerable part of software architectures is influenced; these architectures are moving towards service-oriented architectures. Therefore applications (re)use services that are available elsewhere and many applications interact, without knowing each other, using services available via service servers and their published interfaces and functionalities. Industries propose, through various consortium, languages, technologies and standards. More academic works are also undertaken concerning semantics and formalisation of components and service-based systems. We consider here both streams of works in order to raise research concerns that will help in building quality software. Are there new challenging problems with respect to service-based software construction? Besides, what are the links and the advances compared to distributed systems?Comment: 16 page

Analyzing Behavioural Scenarios over Tabular Specifications Using Model Checking

Tabular notations, in particular SCR specifications, have proved to be a useful means for formally describing complex requirements. The SCR method offers a powerful family of analysis tools, known as the SCR Toolset, but its availability is restricted by the Naval Research Laboratory of the USA. This toolset applies different kinds of analysis considering the whole set of behaviours associated with a requirements specification. In this paper we present a tool for describing and analyzing SCR requirements descriptions, that complements the SCR Toolset in two aspects. First, its use is not limited by any institution, and resorts to a standard model checking tool for analysis; and second, it allows to concentrate the analysis to particular sets of behaviours (subsets of the whole specifications), that correspond to particular scenarios explicitly mentioned in the specification. We take an operational notation that allows the engineer to describe behavioural "scenarios" by means of programs, and provide a translation into Promela to perform the analysis via Spin, an efficient off-the-shelf model checker freely available. In addition, we apply the SCR method to a Pacemaker system and we use its tabular specification as a running example of this article.Comment: In Proceedings LAFM 2013, arXiv:1401.056

Automatic Generation of Minimal Cut Sets

A cut set is a collection of component failure modes that could lead to a system failure. Cut Set Analysis (CSA) is applied to critical systems to identify and rank system vulnerabilities at design time. Model checking tools have been used to automate the generation of minimal cut sets but are generally based on checking reachability of system failure states. This paper describes a new approach to CSA using a Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) model checker called BT Analyser that supports the generation of multiple counterexamples. The approach enables a broader class of system failures to be analysed, by generalising from failure state formulae to failure behaviours expressed in LTL. The traditional approach to CSA using model checking requires the model or system failure to be modified, usually by hand, to eliminate already-discovered cut sets, and the model checker to be rerun, at each step. By contrast, the new approach works incrementally and fully automatically, thereby removing the tedious and error-prone manual process and resulting in significantly reduced computation time. This in turn enables larger models to be checked. Two different strategies for using BT Analyser for CSA are presented. There is generally no single best strategy for model checking: their relative efficiency depends on the model and property being analysed. Comparative results are given for the A320 hydraulics case study in the Behavior Tree modelling language.Comment: In Proceedings ESSS 2015, arXiv:1506.0325

Verification and synthesis of asynchronous control circuits using petri net unfoldings

PhD ThesisDesign of asynchronous control circuits has traditionally been associated with application of formal methods. Event-based models, such as Petri nets, provide a compact and easy to understand way of specifying asynchronous behaviour. However, analysis of their behavioural properties is often hindered by the problem of exponential growth of reachable state space. This work proposes a new method for analysis of asynchronous circuit models based on Petri nets. The new approach is called PN-unfolding segment. It extends and improves existing Petri nets unfolding approaches. In addition, this thesis proposes a new analysis technique for Signal Transition Graphs along with an efficient verification technique which is also based on the Petri net unfolding. The former is called Full State Graph, the latter - STG-unfolding segment. The boolean logic synthesis is an integral part of the asynchronous circuit design process. In many cases, even if the verification of an asynchronous circuit specification has been performed successfully, it is impossible to obtain its implementation using existing methods because they are based on the reachability analysis. A new approach is proposed here for automated synthesis of speed-independent circuits based on the STG-unfolding segment constructed during the verification of the circuit's specification. Finally, this work presents experimental results showing the need for the new Petri net unfolding techniques and confirming the advantages of application of partial order approach to analysis, verification and synthesis of asynchronous circuits.The Research Committee, Newcastle University: Overseas Research Studentship Award