27 research outputs found
Computing Quantiles in Markov Reward Models
Probabilistic model checking mainly concentrates on techniques for reasoning
about the probabilities of certain path properties or expected values of
certain random variables. For the quantitative system analysis, however, there
is also another type of interesting performance measure, namely quantiles. A
typical quantile query takes as input a lower probability bound p and a
reachability property. The task is then to compute the minimal reward bound r
such that with probability at least p the target set will be reached before the
accumulated reward exceeds r. Quantiles are well-known from mathematical
statistics, but to the best of our knowledge they have not been addressed by
the model checking community so far.
In this paper, we study the complexity of quantile queries for until
properties in discrete-time finite-state Markov decision processes with
non-negative rewards on states. We show that qualitative quantile queries can
be evaluated in polynomial time and present an exponential algorithm for the
evaluation of quantitative quantile queries. For the special case of Markov
chains, we show that quantitative quantile queries can be evaluated in time
polynomial in the size of the chain and the maximum reward.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure; typo in example correcte
Average-energy games
Two-player quantitative zero-sum games provide a natural framework to
synthesize controllers with performance guarantees for reactive systems within
an uncontrollable environment. Classical settings include mean-payoff games,
where the objective is to optimize the long-run average gain per action, and
energy games, where the system has to avoid running out of energy.
We study average-energy games, where the goal is to optimize the long-run
average of the accumulated energy. We show that this objective arises naturally
in several applications, and that it yields interesting connections with
previous concepts in the literature. We prove that deciding the winner in such
games is in NP inter coNP and at least as hard as solving mean-payoff games,
and we establish that memoryless strategies suffice to win. We also consider
the case where the system has to minimize the average-energy while maintaining
the accumulated energy within predefined bounds at all times: this corresponds
to operating with a finite-capacity storage for energy. We give results for
one-player and two-player games, and establish complexity bounds and memory
requirements.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2015, arXiv:1509.0685
Limit Your Consumption! Finding Bounds in Average-energy Games
Energy games are infinite two-player games played in weighted arenas with
quantitative objectives that restrict the consumption of a resource modeled by
the weights, e.g., a battery that is charged and drained. Typically, upper
and/or lower bounds on the battery capacity are part of the problem
description. Here, we consider the problem of determining upper bounds on the
average accumulated energy or on the capacity while satisfying a given lower
bound, i.e., we do not determine whether a given bound is sufficient to meet
the specification, but if there exists a sufficient bound to meet it.
In the classical setting with positive and negative weights, we show that the
problem of determining the existence of a sufficient bound on the long-run
average accumulated energy can be solved in doubly-exponential time. Then, we
consider recharge games: here, all weights are negative, but there are recharge
edges that recharge the energy to some fixed capacity. We show that bounding
the long-run average energy in such games is complete for exponential time.
Then, we consider the existential version of the problem, which turns out to be
solvable in polynomial time: here, we ask whether there is a recharge capacity
that allows the system player to win the game.
We conclude by studying tradeoffs between the memory needed to implement
strategies and the bounds they realize. We give an example showing that memory
can be traded for bounds and vice versa. Also, we show that increasing the
capacity allows to lower the average accumulated energy.Comment: In Proceedings QAPL'16, arXiv:1610.0769
Quantitative games with interval objectives
Traditionally quantitative games such as mean-payoff games and discount sum
games have two players -- one trying to maximize the payoff, the other trying
to minimize it. The associated decision problem, "Can Eve (the maximizer)
achieve, for example, a positive payoff?" can be thought of as one player
trying to attain a payoff in the interval . In this paper we
consider the more general problem of determining if a player can attain a
payoff in a finite union of arbitrary intervals for various payoff functions
(liminf, mean-payoff, discount sum, total sum). In particular this includes the
interesting exact-value problem, "Can Eve achieve a payoff of exactly (e.g.)
0?"Comment: Full version of CONCUR submissio
Real-time and Probabilistic Temporal Logics: An Overview
Over the last two decades, there has been an extensive study on logical
formalisms for specifying and verifying real-time systems. Temporal logics have
been an important research subject within this direction. Although numerous
logics have been introduced for the formal specification of real-time and
complex systems, an up to date comprehensive analysis of these logics does not
exist in the literature. In this paper we analyse real-time and probabilistic
temporal logics which have been widely used in this field. We extrapolate the
notions of decidability, axiomatizability, expressiveness, model checking, etc.
for each logic analysed. We also provide a comparison of features of the
temporal logics discussed
Model Checking Probabilistic Real-Time Properties for Service-Oriented Systems with Service Level Agreements
The assurance of quality of service properties is an important aspect of
service-oriented software engineering. Notations for so-called service level
agreements (SLAs), such as the Web Service Level Agreement (WSLA) language,
provide a formal syntax to specify such assurances in terms of (legally
binding) contracts between a service provider and a customer. On the other
hand, formal methods for verification of probabilistic real-time behavior have
reached a level of expressiveness and efficiency which allows to apply them in
real-world scenarios. In this paper, we suggest to employ the recently
introduced model of Interval Probabilistic Timed Automata (IPTA) for formal
verification of QoS properties of service-oriented systems. Specifically, we
show that IPTA in contrast to Probabilistic Timed Automata (PTA) are able to
capture the guarantees specified in SLAs directly. A particular challenge in
the analysis of IPTA is the fact that their naive semantics usually yields an
infinite set of states and infinitely-branching transitions. However, using
symbolic representations, IPTA can be analyzed rather efficiently. We have
developed the first implementation of an IPTA model checker by extending the
PRISM tool and show that model checking IPTA is only slightly more expensive
than model checking comparable PTA.Comment: In Proceedings INFINITY 2011, arXiv:1111.267
Probabilistic Timed Automata with Clock-Dependent Probabilities
Probabilistic timed automata are classical timed automata extended with
discrete probability distributions over edges. We introduce clock-dependent
probabilistic timed automata, a variant of probabilistic timed automata in
which transition probabilities can depend linearly on clock values.
Clock-dependent probabilistic timed automata allow the modelling of a
continuous relationship between time passage and the likelihood of system
events. We show that the problem of deciding whether the maximum probability of
reaching a certain location is above a threshold is undecidable for
clock-dependent probabilistic timed automata. On the other hand, we show that
the maximum and minimum probability of reaching a certain location in
clock-dependent probabilistic timed automata can be approximated using a
region-graph-based approach.Comment: Full version of a paper published at RP 201