29,463 research outputs found
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
A model checker for performance and dependability properties
Markov chains are widely used in the context of
performance and reliability evaluation of systems of various
nature. Model checking of such chains with respect to
a given (branching) temporal logic formula has been proposed
for both the discrete [8] and the continuous time setting
[1], [3]. In this short paper, we describe the prototype
model checker for discrete and continuous-time
Markov chains, where properties are expressed in appropriate
extensions of CTL.We illustrate the general benefits
of this approach and discuss the structure of the tool
Construction and Verification of Performance and Reliability Models
Over the last two decades formal methods have been extended towards performance and reliability evaluation. This paper tries to provide a rather intuitive explanation of the basic concepts and features in this area.
Instead of striving for mathematical rigour, the intention is to give an illustrative introduction to the basics of stochastic models, to stochastic modelling using process algebra, and to model checking as a technique to analyse stochastic models
StocHy: automated verification and synthesis of stochastic processes
StocHy is a software tool for the quantitative analysis of discrete-time
stochastic hybrid systems (SHS). StocHy accepts a high-level description of
stochastic models and constructs an equivalent SHS model. The tool allows to
(i) simulate the SHS evolution over a given time horizon; and to automatically
construct formal abstractions of the SHS. Abstractions are then employed for
(ii) formal verification or (iii) control (policy, strategy) synthesis. StocHy
allows for modular modelling, and has separate simulation, verification and
synthesis engines, which are implemented as independent libraries. This allows
for libraries to be easily used and for extensions to be easily built. The tool
is implemented in C++ and employs manipulations based on vector calculus, the
use of sparse matrices, the symbolic construction of probabilistic kernels, and
multi-threading. Experiments show StocHy's markedly improved performance when
compared to existing abstraction-based approaches: in particular, StocHy beats
state-of-the-art tools in terms of precision (abstraction error) and
computational effort, and finally attains scalability to large-sized models (12
continuous dimensions). StocHy is available at www.gitlab.com/natchi92/StocHy
A tool for model-checking Markov chains
Markov chains are widely used in the context of the performance and reliability modeling of various systems. Model checking of such chains with respect to a given (branching) temporal logic formula has been proposed for both discrete [34, 10] and continuous time settings [7, 12]. In this paper, we describe a prototype model checker for discrete and continuous-time Markov chains, the Erlangen-Twente Markov Chain Checker EĆMC2, where properties are expressed in appropriate extensions of CTL. We illustrate the general benefits of this approach and discuss the structure of the tool. Furthermore, we report on successful applications of the tool to some examples, highlighting lessons learned during the development and application of EĆMC2
Bounded Satisfiability for PCTL
While model checking PCTL for Markov chains is decidable in polynomial-time,
the decidability of PCTL satisfiability, as well as its finite model property,
are long standing open problems. While general satisfiability is an intriguing
challenge from a purely theoretical point of view, we argue that general
solutions would not be of interest to practitioners: such solutions could be
too big to be implementable or even infinite. Inspired by bounded synthesis
techniques, we turn to the more applied problem of seeking models of a bounded
size: we restrict our search to implementable -- and therefore reasonably
simple -- models. We propose a procedure to decide whether or not a given PCTL
formula has an implementable model by reducing it to an SMT problem. We have
implemented our techniques and found that they can be applied to the practical
problem of sanity checking -- a procedure that allows a system designer to
check whether their formula has an unexpectedly small model
- ā¦