16,709 research outputs found
Game Refinement Relations and Metrics
We consider two-player games played over finite state spaces for an infinite
number of rounds. At each state, the players simultaneously choose moves; the
moves determine a successor state. It is often advantageous for players to
choose probability distributions over moves, rather than single moves. Given a
goal, for example, reach a target state, the question of winning is thus a
probabilistic one: what is the maximal probability of winning from a given
state?
On these game structures, two fundamental notions are those of equivalences
and metrics. Given a set of winning conditions, two states are equivalent if
the players can win the same games with the same probability from both states.
Metrics provide a bound on the difference in the probabilities of winning
across states, capturing a quantitative notion of state similarity.
We introduce equivalences and metrics for two-player game structures, and we
show that they characterize the difference in probability of winning games
whose goals are expressed in the quantitative mu-calculus. The quantitative
mu-calculus can express a large set of goals, including reachability, safety,
and omega-regular properties. Thus, we claim that our relations and metrics
provide the canonical extensions to games, of the classical notion of
bisimulation for transition systems. We develop our results both for
equivalences and metrics, which generalize bisimulation, and for asymmetrical
versions, which generalize simulation
Algorithms for Game Metrics
Simulation and bisimulation metrics for stochastic systems provide a
quantitative generalization of the classical simulation and bisimulation
relations. These metrics capture the similarity of states with respect to
quantitative specifications written in the quantitative {\mu}-calculus and
related probabilistic logics. We first show that the metrics provide a bound
for the difference in long-run average and discounted average behavior across
states, indicating that the metrics can be used both in system verification,
and in performance evaluation. For turn-based games and MDPs, we provide a
polynomial-time algorithm for the computation of the one-step metric distance
between states. The algorithm is based on linear programming; it improves on
the previous known exponential-time algorithm based on a reduction to the
theory of reals. We then present PSPACE algorithms for both the decision
problem and the problem of approximating the metric distance between two
states, matching the best known algorithms for Markov chains. For the
bisimulation kernel of the metric our algorithm works in time O(n^4) for both
turn-based games and MDPs; improving the previously best known O(n^9\cdot
log(n)) time algorithm for MDPs. For a concurrent game G, we show that
computing the exact distance between states is at least as hard as computing
the value of concurrent reachability games and the square-root-sum problem in
computational geometry. We show that checking whether the metric distance is
bounded by a rational r, can be done via a reduction to the theory of real
closed fields, involving a formula with three quantifier alternations, yielding
O(|G|^O(|G|^5)) time complexity, improving the previously known reduction,
which yielded O(|G|^O(|G|^7)) time complexity. These algorithms can be iterated
to approximate the metrics using binary search.Comment: 27 pages. Full version of the paper accepted at FSTTCS 200
Interface Simulation Distances
The classical (boolean) notion of refinement for behavioral interfaces of
system components is the alternating refinement preorder. In this paper, we
define a distance for interfaces, called interface simulation distance. It
makes the alternating refinement preorder quantitative by, intuitively,
tolerating errors (while counting them) in the alternating simulation game. We
show that the interface simulation distance satisfies the triangle inequality,
that the distance between two interfaces does not increase under parallel
composition with a third interface, and that the distance between two
interfaces can be bounded from above and below by distances between
abstractions of the two interfaces. We illustrate the framework, and the
properties of the distances under composition of interfaces, with two case
studies.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2012, arXiv:1210.202
An Algorithm for Probabilistic Alternating Simulation
In probabilistic game structures, probabilistic alternating simulation
(PA-simulation) relations preserve formulas defined in probabilistic
alternating-time temporal logic with respect to the behaviour of a subset of
players. We propose a partition based algorithm for computing the largest
PA-simulation, which is to our knowledge the first such algorithm that works in
polynomial time, by extending the generalised coarsest partition problem (GCPP)
in a game-based setting with mixed strategies. The algorithm has higher
complexities than those in the literature for non-probabilistic simulation and
probabilistic simulation without mixed actions, but slightly improves the
existing result for computing probabilistic simulation with respect to mixed
actions.Comment: We've fixed a problem in the SOFSEM'12 conference versio
Weighted Modal Transition Systems
Specification theories as a tool in model-driven development processes of
component-based software systems have recently attracted a considerable
attention. Current specification theories are however qualitative in nature,
and therefore fragile in the sense that the inevitable approximation of systems
by models, combined with the fundamental unpredictability of hardware
platforms, makes it difficult to transfer conclusions about the behavior, based
on models, to the actual system. Hence this approach is arguably unsuited for
modern software systems. We propose here the first specification theory which
allows to capture quantitative aspects during the refinement and implementation
process, thus leveraging the problems of the qualitative setting.
Our proposed quantitative specification framework uses weighted modal
transition systems as a formal model of specifications. These are labeled
transition systems with the additional feature that they can model optional
behavior which may or may not be implemented by the system. Satisfaction and
refinement is lifted from the well-known qualitative to our quantitative
setting, by introducing a notion of distances between weighted modal transition
systems. We show that quantitative versions of parallel composition as well as
quotient (the dual to parallel composition) inherit the properties from the
Boolean setting.Comment: Submitted to Formal Methods in System Desig
The earlier the better: a theory of timed actor interfaces
Programming embedded and cyber-physical systems requires attention not only to functional behavior and correctness, but also to non-functional aspects and specifically timing and performance. A structured, compositional, model-based approach based on stepwise refinement and abstraction techniques can support the development process, increase its quality and reduce development time through automation of synthesis, analysis or verification. Toward this, we introduce a theory of timed actors whose notion of refinement is based on the principle of worst-case design that permeates the world of performance-critical systems. This is in contrast with the classical behavioral and functional refinements based on restricting sets of behaviors. Our refinement allows time-deterministic abstractions to be made of time-non-deterministic systems, improving efficiency and reducing complexity of formal analysis. We show how our theory relates to, and can be used to reconcile existing time and performance models and their established theories
- …