1,494 research outputs found
Encoding Higher Level Extensions of Petri Nets in Answer Set Programming
Answering realistic questions about biological systems and pathways similar
to the ones used by text books to test understanding of students about
biological systems is one of our long term research goals. Often these
questions require simulation based reasoning. To answer such questions, we need
formalisms to build pathway models, add extensions, simulate, and reason with
them. We chose Petri Nets and Answer Set Programming (ASP) as suitable
formalisms, since Petri Net models are similar to biological pathway diagrams;
and ASP provides easy extension and strong reasoning abilities. We found that
certain aspects of biological pathways, such as locations and substance types,
cannot be represented succinctly using regular Petri Nets. As a result, we need
higher level constructs like colored tokens. In this paper, we show how Petri
Nets with colored tokens can be encoded in ASP in an intuitive manner, how
additional Petri Net extensions can be added by making small code changes, and
how this work furthers our long term research goals. Our approach can be
adapted to other domains with similar modeling needs
Petri Nets for Concurrent Programming
Concurrent programming is used in all large and complex computer systems.
However, concurrency errors and system failures (ex: crashes and deadlocks) are
common. We find that Petri nets can be used to model concurrent systems and
find and remove errors ahead of time. We introduce a novel generalization of
Petri nets with nondeterministic transition nodes to match real systems. These
allow for a compact way to construct, optimize, and prove computer programs at
the concurrency level. Petri net programs can also be optimized by
automatically solving for maximal concurrency, where the maximum number of
valid threads is determined by the structure of the Petri net prior to
execution. We discuss an algorithm to compute the state graph of a given Petri
net start state pair. We introduce our open source software framework which
implements this theory as a general purpose concurrency focused middle-ware
A Generic Framework for Reasoning about Dynamic Networks of Infinite-State Processes
We propose a framework for reasoning about unbounded dynamic networks of
infinite-state processes. We propose Constrained Petri Nets (CPN) as generic
models for these networks. They can be seen as Petri nets where tokens
(representing occurrences of processes) are colored by values over some
potentially infinite data domain such as integers, reals, etc. Furthermore, we
define a logic, called CML (colored markings logic), for the description of CPN
configurations. CML is a first-order logic over tokens allowing to reason about
their locations and their colors. Both CPNs and CML are parametrized by a color
logic allowing to express constraints on the colors (data) associated with
tokens. We investigate the decidability of the satisfiability problem of CML
and its applications in the verification of CPNs. We identify a fragment of CML
for which the satisfiability problem is decidable (whenever it is the case for
the underlying color logic), and which is closed under the computations of post
and pre images for CPNs. These results can be used for several kinds of
analysis such as invariance checking, pre-post condition reasoning, and bounded
reachability analysis.Comment: 29 pages, 5 tables, 1 figure, extended version of the paper published
in the the Proceedings of TACAS 2007, LNCS 442
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Modeling and analysis of concurrent systems
A survey of modeling and analysis techniques in common use for modeling and analyzing concurrent systems. The models surveyed are CSP (Communicating Sequential Processes), Path Expressions, CCS (Calculus of Communicating Systems), CIRCAL, Petri Nets, Coloured Petri Nets, Predicate-Action Nets, Numerical Petri Nets, Contour-Transition Nets, and several varieties of Timed Petri Nets. The analysis techniques are state-space analysis, temporal logic, structural analysis, and inductive analysis
Parameterized Reachability Graph for Software Model Checking Based on PDNet
Model checking is a software automation verification technique. However, the complex execution process of concurrent software systems and the exhaustive search of state space make the model-checking technique limited by the state-explosion problem in real applications. Due to the uncertain input information (called system parameterization) in concurrent software systems, the state-explosion problem in model checking is exacerbated. To address the problem that reachability graphs of Petri net are difficult to construct and cannot be explored exhaustively due to system parameterization, this paper introduces parameterized variables into the program dependence net (a concurrent program model). Then, it proposes a parameterized reachability graph generation algorithm, including decision algorithms for verifying the properties. We implement LTL-x verification based on parameterized reachability graphs and solve the problem of difficulty constructing reachability graphs caused by uncertain inputs
Representing Conversations for Scalable Overhearing
Open distributed multi-agent systems are gaining interest in the academic
community and in industry. In such open settings, agents are often coordinated
using standardized agent conversation protocols. The representation of such
protocols (for analysis, validation, monitoring, etc) is an important aspect of
multi-agent applications. Recently, Petri nets have been shown to be an
interesting approach to such representation, and radically different approaches
using Petri nets have been proposed. However, their relative strengths and
weaknesses have not been examined. Moreover, their scalability and suitability
for different tasks have not been addressed. This paper addresses both these
challenges. First, we analyze existing Petri net representations in terms of
their scalability and appropriateness for overhearing, an important task in
monitoring open multi-agent systems. Then, building on the insights gained, we
introduce a novel representation using Colored Petri nets that explicitly
represent legal joint conversation states and messages. This representation
approach offers significant improvements in scalability and is particularly
suitable for overhearing. Furthermore, we show that this new representation
offers a comprehensive coverage of all conversation features of FIPA
conversation standards. We also present a procedure for transforming AUML
conversation protocol diagrams (a standard human-readable representation), to
our Colored Petri net representation
Static Analysis of Deterministic Negotiations
Negotiation diagrams are a model of concurrent computation akin to workflow
Petri nets. Deterministic negotiation diagrams, equivalent to the much studied
and used free-choice workflow Petri nets, are surprisingly amenable to
verification. Soundness (a property close to deadlock-freedom) can be decided
in PTIME. Further, other fundamental questions like computing summaries or the
expected cost, can also be solved in PTIME for sound deterministic negotiation
diagrams, while they are PSPACE-complete in the general case.
In this paper we generalize and explain these results. We extend the
classical "meet-over-all-paths" (MOP) formulation of static analysis problems
to our concurrent setting, and introduce Mazurkiewicz-invariant analysis
problems, which encompass the questions above and new ones. We show that any
Mazurkiewicz-invariant analysis problem can be solved in PTIME for sound
deterministic negotiations whenever it is in PTIME for sequential
flow-graphs---even though the flow-graph of a deterministic negotiation diagram
can be exponentially larger than the diagram itself. This gives a common
explanation to the low-complexity of all the analysis questions studied so far.
Finally, we show that classical gen/kill analyses are also an instance of our
framework, and obtain a PTIME algorithm for detecting anti-patterns in
free-choice workflow Petri nets.
Our result is based on a novel decomposition theorem, of independent
interest, showing that sound deterministic negotiation diagrams can be
hierarchically decomposed into (possibly overlapping) smaller sound diagrams.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of LICS 2017, IEEE Computer Societ
Towards a Formal Framework for Mobile, Service-Oriented Sensor-Actuator Networks
Service-oriented sensor-actuator networks (SOSANETs) are deployed in
health-critical applications like patient monitoring and have to fulfill strong
safety requirements. However, a framework for the rigorous formal modeling and
analysis of SOSANETs does not exist. In particular, there is currently no
support for the verification of correct network behavior after node failure or
loss/addition of communication links. To overcome this problem, we propose a
formal framework for SOSANETs. The main idea is to base our framework on the
\pi-calculus, a formally defined, compositional and well-established formalism.
We choose KLAIM, an existing formal language based on the \pi-calculus as the
foundation for our framework. With that, we are able to formally model SOSANETs
with possible topology changes and network failures. This provides the basis
for our future work on prediction, analysis and verification of the network
behavior of these systems. Furthermore, we illustrate the real-life
applicability of this approach by modeling and extending a use case scenario
from the medical domain.Comment: In Proceedings FESCA 2013, arXiv:1302.478
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