Extending Compositional Message Sequence Graphs

We extend the formal developments for message sequence charts (MSCs) to support scenarios with lost and found messages. We define a notion of extended compositional message sequence charts (ECMSCs) which subsumes the notion of compositional message sequence charts in expressive power but additionally allows to define lost and found messages explicitly. As usual, ECMSCs might be combined by means of choice and repetition towards (extended) compositional message sequence graphs. We show that - despite extended expressive power - model checking of monadic second-order logic (MSO) for this framework remains to be decidable. The key technique to achieve our results is to use an extended notion for linearizations

A theory of regular MSC languages

Message sequence charts (MSCs) are an attractive visual formalism widely used to capture system requirements during the early design stages in domains such as telecommunication software. It is fruitful to have mechanisms for specifying and reasoning about collections of MSCs so that errors can be detected even at the requirements level. We propose, accordingly, a notion of regularity for collections of MSCs and explore its basic properties. In particular, we provide an automata-theoretic characterization of regular MSC languages in terms of finite-state distributed automata called bounded message-passing automata. These automata consist of a set of sequential processes that communicate with each other by sending and receiving messages over bounded FIFO channels. We also provide a logical characterization in terms of a natural monadic second-order logic interpreted over MSCs. A commonly used technique to generate a collection of MSCs is to use a hierarchical message sequence chart (HMSC). We show that the class of languages arising from the so-called bounded HMSCs constitute a proper subclass of the class of regular MSC languages. In fact, we characterize the bounded HMSC languages as the subclass of regular MSC languages that are finitely generated

Generalised regular MSC languages

Abstract. In this paper, we establish the concept of regularity for languages consisting of Message Sequence Charts (MSCs). To this aim, we formalise their behaviour by string languages and give a natural definition of regularity in terms of an appropriate Nerode right congruence. Moreover, we present a class of accepting automata and, using this characterisation, establish several decidability and closure properties of MSC languages. We also provide a logical characterisation by a monadic second-order logic interpreted over MSCs. In contrast to existing work on regular MSC languages, our approach is neither restricted to a certain class of MSCs nor tailored to a fixed communication medium (such as a FIFO channel). It explicitly allows MSCs with message overtaking and is thus applicable to a broad range of channel types like mixtures of stacks and FIFOs.

Generalised Regular MSC Languages

In this paper, we establish the concept of regularity for languages consisting of Message Sequence Charts (MSCs). To this aim, we formalise their behaviour by string languages and give a natural definition of regularity in terms of an appropriate Nerode right congruence. Moreover, we present a class of accepting automata and, using this characterisation, establish several decidability and closure properties of MSC languages. We also provide a logical characterisation by a monadic second-order logic interpreted over MSCs. In contrast to existing work on regular MSC languages, our approach is neither restricted to a certain class of MSCs nor tailored to a fixed communication medium (such as a FIFO channel). It explicitly allows MSCs with message overtaking and is thus applicable to a broad range of channel types like mixtures of stacks and FIFOs