Efficient model checking for LTL with partial order snapshots

Certain behavioral properties of distributed systems are difficult to express in interleaving semantics, whereas they are naturally expressed in terms of partial orders of events or, equivalently, Mazurkiewicz traces. Two examples of such properties are serializability of a database and global snapshots of concurrent systems. Recently, a modest extension for LTL by an operator that expresses snapshots, has been proposed. It combines the ease of linear (interleaving) specification with this useful partial order concept. The new construct allows one to assert that a global snapshot appeared in the past, perhaps not in the observed execution sequence, but possibly in an equivalent one. Originally, a model checking algorithm for this logic that is exponential space in the size of the system was suggested. in this paper, we provide a model checking algorithm that is in polynomial space in the size of the system. Our construction can also serve as an efficient (polynomial) algorithm for detecting conjunctive properties (i.e., conjunction of local process properties) in a concurrent history of execution. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Efficient model checking for LTL with partial order snapshots

Certain behavioral properties of distributed systems are difficult to express in interleaving semantics, whereas they are naturally expressed in terms of partial orders of events or, equivalently, Mazurkiewicz traces. Examples of such properties are serializability of a database or snapshots. Recently, a modest extension for LTL by an operator that expresses snapshots has been proposed. It combines the ease of linear (interleaving) specification with this useful partial order concept. The new construct allows one to assert that a global snapshot (also called a slice or a cut) was passed, perhaps not in the observed (interleaved) execution sequence, but possibly in a (trace) equivalent one. A model checking algorithm was suggested for a subset of this logic, with PSPACE complexity in the size of the system and the checked formula. For the whole logic, a solution that is in EXSPACE in the size of the system (PSPACE in the number of its global states) was given. In this paper, we provide a model checking algorithm in PSPACE in the size of a system of communicating sequential processes when restricting snapshots to boolean combinations of local properties of each process. Concerning size of the formula, it is PSPACE for the case of snapshot properties expressed in DNF, and EXPSPACE where a translation to DNF is necessary

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