Learning to Prove Safety over Parameterised Concurrent Systems (Full Version)

We revisit the classic problem of proving safety over parameterised concurrent systems, i.e., an infinite family of finite-state concurrent systems that are represented by some finite (symbolic) means. An example of such an infinite family is a dining philosopher protocol with any number n of processes (n being the parameter that defines the infinite family). Regular model checking is a well-known generic framework for modelling parameterised concurrent systems, where an infinite set of configurations (resp. transitions) is represented by a regular set (resp. regular transducer). Although verifying safety properties in the regular model checking framework is undecidable in general, many sophisticated semi-algorithms have been developed in the past fifteen years that can successfully prove safety in many practical instances. In this paper, we propose a simple solution to synthesise regular inductive invariants that makes use of Angluin's classic L* algorithm (and its variants). We provide a termination guarantee when the set of configurations reachable from a given set of initial configurations is regular. We have tested L* algorithm on standard (as well as new) examples in regular model checking including the dining philosopher protocol, the dining cryptographer protocol, and several mutual exclusion protocols (e.g. Bakery, Burns, Szymanski, and German). Our experiments show that, despite the simplicity of our solution, it can perform at least as well as existing semi-algorithms.Comment: Full version of FMCAD'17 pape

Generating and Solving Symbolic Parity Games

We present a new tool for verification of modal mu-calculus formulae for process specifications, based on symbolic parity games. It enhances an existing method, that first encodes the problem to a Parameterised Boolean Equation System (PBES) and then instantiates the PBES to a parity game. We improved the translation from specification to PBES to preserve the structure of the specification in the PBES, we extended LTSmin to instantiate PBESs to symbolic parity games, and implemented the recursive parity game solving algorithm by Zielonka for symbolic parity games. We use Multi-valued Decision Diagrams (MDDs) to represent sets and relations, thus enabling the tools to deal with very large systems. The transition relation is partitioned based on the structure of the specification, which allows for efficient manipulation of the MDDs. We performed two case studies on modular specifications, that demonstrate that the new method has better time and memory performance than existing PBES based tools and can be faster (but slightly less memory efficient) than the symbolic model checker NuSMV.Comment: In Proceedings GRAPHITE 2014, arXiv:1407.767

Z2SAL: a translation-based model checker for Z

Despite being widely known and accepted in industry, the Z formal specification language has not so far been well supported by automated verification tools, mostly because of the challenges in handling the abstraction of the language. In this paper we discuss a novel approach to building a model-checker for Z, which involves implementing a translation from Z into SAL, the input language for the Symbolic Analysis Laboratory, a toolset which includes a number of model-checkers and a simulator. The Z2SAL translation deals with a number of important issues, including: mapping unbounded, abstract specifications into bounded, finite models amenable to a BDD-based symbolic checker; converting a non-constructive and piecemeal style of functional specification into a deterministic, automaton-based style of specification; and supporting the rich set-based vocabulary of the Z mathematical toolkit. This paper discusses progress made towards implementing as complete and faithful a translation as possible, while highlighting certain assumptions, respecting certain limitations and making use of available optimisations. The translation is illustrated throughout with examples; and a complete working example is presented, together with performance data

Big Data Analytics for QoS Prediction Through Probabilistic Model Checking

As competitiveness increases, being able to guaranting QoS of delivered services is key for business success. It is thus of paramount importance the ability to continuously monitor the workflow providing a service and to timely recognize breaches in the agreed QoS level. The ideal condition would be the possibility to anticipate, thus predict, a breach and operate to avoid it, or at least to mitigate its effects. In this paper we propose a model checking based approach to predict QoS of a formally described process. The continous model checking is enabled by the usage of a parametrized model of the monitored system, where the actual value of parameters is continuously evaluated and updated by means of big data tools. The paper also describes a prototype implementation of the approach and shows its usage in a case study.Comment: EDCC-2014, BIG4CIP-2014, Big Data Analytics, QoS Prediction, Model Checking, SLA compliance monitorin

Linear Time Logics - A Coalgebraic Perspective

We describe a general approach to deriving linear time logics for a wide variety of state-based, quantitative systems, by modelling the latter as coalgebras whose type incorporates both branching behaviour and linear behaviour. Concretely, we define logics whose syntax is determined by the choice of linear behaviour and whose domain of truth values is determined by the choice of branching, and we provide two equivalent semantics for them: a step-wise semantics amenable to automata-based verification, and a path-based semantics akin to those of standard linear time logics. We also provide a semantic characterisation of the associated notion of logical equivalence, and relate it to previously-defined maximal trace semantics for such systems. Instances of our logics support reasoning about the possibility, likelihood or minimal cost of exhibiting a given linear time property. We conclude with a generalisation of the logics, dual in spirit to logics with discounting, which increases their practical appeal in the context of resource-aware computation by incorporating a notion of offsetting.Comment: Major revision of previous version: Sections 4 and 5 generalise the results in the previous version, with new proofs; Section 6 contains new result

Compositional Verification of Parameterised Timed Systems

International audienceIn this paper we address the problem of uniform verification of parameterised timed systems (PTS): " does a given safety state property hold for a system containing n identical timed components regardless of the value of n? ". Our approach is compositional and consequently it suits quite well such systems in that it presents the advantage of reusing existing local characterisations at the global level of system characteri-sation. Additionally, we show how a direct consequence of the modelling choices adopted in our framework leads to an elegant application of the presented method to topologies such as stars and rings

Progress in AI Planning Research and Applications

Planning has made significant progress since its inception in the 1970s, in terms both of the efficiency and sophistication of its algorithms and representations and its potential for application to real problems. In this paper we sketch the foundations of planning as a sub-field of Artificial Intelligence and the history of its development over the past three decades. Then some of the recent achievements within the field are discussed and provided some experimental data demonstrating the progress that has been made in the application of general planners to realistic and complex problems. The paper concludes by identifying some of the open issues that remain as important challenges for future research in planning

PDDL2.1: An extension of PDDL for expressing temporal planning domains

In recent years research in the planning community has moved increasingly towards application of planners to realistic problems involving both time and many types of resources. For example, interest in planning demonstrated by the space research community has inspired work in observation scheduling, planetary rover ex ploration and spacecraft control domains. Other temporal and resource-intensive domains including logistics planning, plant control and manufacturing have also helped to focus the community on the modelling and reasoning issues that must be confronted to make planning technology meet the challenges of application. The International Planning Competitions have acted as an important motivating force behind the progress that has been made in planning since 1998. The third competition (held in 2002) set the planning community the challenge of handling time and numeric resources. This necessitated the development of a modelling language capable of expressing temporal and numeric properties of planning domains. In this paper we describe the language, PDDL2.1, that was used in the competition. We describe the syntax of the language, its formal semantics and the validation of concurrent plans. We observe that PDDL2.1 has considerable modelling power --- exceeding the capabilities of current planning technology --- and presents a number of important challenges to the research community