1,106 research outputs found
Recognizable tree series with discounting
We consider weighted tree automata with discounting over commutative semirings. For their behaviors we establish a Kleene theorem and an MSO-logic characterization. We introduce also weighted Muller tree automata with discounting over the max-plus and the min-plus semirings, and we show their expressive equivalence with two fragments of weighted MSO-sentences
Near-Optimal Scheduling for LTL with Future Discounting
We study the search problem for optimal schedulers for the linear temporal
logic (LTL) with future discounting. The logic, introduced by Almagor, Boker
and Kupferman, is a quantitative variant of LTL in which an event in the far
future has only discounted contribution to a truth value (that is a real number
in the unit interval [0, 1]). The precise problem we study---it naturally
arises e.g. in search for a scheduler that recovers from an internal error
state as soon as possible---is the following: given a Kripke frame, a formula
and a number in [0, 1] called a margin, find a path of the Kripke frame that is
optimal with respect to the formula up to the prescribed margin (a truly
optimal path may not exist). We present an algorithm for the problem; it works
even in the extended setting with propositional quality operators, a setting
where (threshold) model-checking is known to be undecidable
Discounting in LTL
In recent years, there is growing need and interest in formalizing and
reasoning about the quality of software and hardware systems. As opposed to
traditional verification, where one handles the question of whether a system
satisfies, or not, a given specification, reasoning about quality addresses the
question of \emph{how well} the system satisfies the specification. One
direction in this effort is to refine the "eventually" operators of temporal
logic to {\em discounting operators}: the satisfaction value of a specification
is a value in , where the longer it takes to fulfill eventuality
requirements, the smaller the satisfaction value is.
In this paper we introduce an augmentation by discounting of Linear Temporal
Logic (LTL), and study it, as well as its combination with propositional
quality operators. We show that one can augment LTL with an arbitrary set of
discounting functions, while preserving the decidability of the model-checking
problem. Further augmenting the logic with unary propositional quality
operators preserves decidability, whereas adding an average-operator makes some
problems undecidable. We also discuss the complexity of the problem, as well as
various extensions
Exact and Approximate Determinization of Discounted-Sum Automata
A discounted-sum automaton (NDA) is a nondeterministic finite automaton with
edge weights, valuing a run by the discounted sum of visited edge weights. More
precisely, the weight in the i-th position of the run is divided by
, where the discount factor is a fixed rational number
greater than 1. The value of a word is the minimal value of the automaton runs
on it. Discounted summation is a common and useful measuring scheme, especially
for infinite sequences, reflecting the assumption that earlier weights are more
important than later weights. Unfortunately, determinization of NDAs, which is
often essential in formal verification, is, in general, not possible. We
provide positive news, showing that every NDA with an integral discount factor
is determinizable. We complete the picture by proving that the integers
characterize exactly the discount factors that guarantee determinizability: for
every nonintegral rational discount factor , there is a
nondeterminizable -NDA. We also prove that the class of NDAs with
integral discount factors enjoys closure under the algebraic operations min,
max, addition, and subtraction, which is not the case for general NDAs nor for
deterministic NDAs. For general NDAs, we look into approximate determinization,
which is always possible as the influence of a word's suffix decays. We show
that the naive approach, of unfolding the automaton computations up to a
sufficient level, is doubly exponential in the discount factor. We provide an
alternative construction for approximate determinization, which is singly
exponential in the discount factor, in the precision, and in the number of
states. We also prove matching lower bounds, showing that the exponential
dependency on each of these three parameters cannot be avoided. All our results
hold equally for automata over finite words and for automata over infinite
words
A Semantic Framework for Test Coverage (Extended Version)
Since testing is inherently incomplete, test selection is of vital importance. Coverage measures evaluate the quality of a test suite and help the tester select test cases with maximal impact at minimum cost. Existing coverage criteria for test suites are usually defined in terms of syntactic characteristics of the implementation under test or its specification. Typical black-box coverage metrics are state and transition coverage of the specification. White-box testing often considers statement, condition and path coverage. A disadvantage of this syntactic approach is that different coverage figures are assigned to systems that are behaviorally equivalent, but syntactically different. Moreover, those coverage metrics do not take into account that certain failures are more severe than others, and that more testing effort should be devoted to uncover the most important bugs, while less critical system parts can be tested less thoroughly. This paper introduces a semantic approach to test coverage. Our starting point is a weighted fault model, which assigns a weight to each potential error in an implementation. We define a framework to express coverage measures that express how well a test suite covers such a specification, taking into account the error weight. Since our notions are semantic, they are insensitive to replacing a specification by one with equivalent behaviour.We present several algorithms that, given a certain minimality criterion, compute a minimal test suite with maximal coverage. These algorithms work on a syntactic representation of weighted fault models as fault automata. They are based on existing and novel optimization\ud
problems. Finally, we illustrate our approach by analyzing and comparing a number of test suites for a chat protocol
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
Weighted Modal Transition Systems
Specification theories as a tool in model-driven development processes of
component-based software systems have recently attracted a considerable
attention. Current specification theories are however qualitative in nature,
and therefore fragile in the sense that the inevitable approximation of systems
by models, combined with the fundamental unpredictability of hardware
platforms, makes it difficult to transfer conclusions about the behavior, based
on models, to the actual system. Hence this approach is arguably unsuited for
modern software systems. We propose here the first specification theory which
allows to capture quantitative aspects during the refinement and implementation
process, thus leveraging the problems of the qualitative setting.
Our proposed quantitative specification framework uses weighted modal
transition systems as a formal model of specifications. These are labeled
transition systems with the additional feature that they can model optional
behavior which may or may not be implemented by the system. Satisfaction and
refinement is lifted from the well-known qualitative to our quantitative
setting, by introducing a notion of distances between weighted modal transition
systems. We show that quantitative versions of parallel composition as well as
quotient (the dual to parallel composition) inherit the properties from the
Boolean setting.Comment: Submitted to Formal Methods in System Desig
A Semantic Framework for Test Coverage
Since testing is inherently incomplete, test selection is of vital importance. Coverage measures evaluate the quality of a test suite and help the tester select test cases with maximal impact at minimum cost. Existing coverage criteria for test suites are usually defined in terms of syntactic characteristics of the implementation under test or its specification. Typical black-box coverage metrics are state and transition coverage of the specification. White-box testing often considers statement, condition and path coverage. A disadvantage of this syntactic approach is that different coverage figures are assigned to systems that are behaviorally equivalent, but syntactically different. Moreover, those coverage metrics do not take into account that certain failures are more severe than others, and that more testing effort should be devoted to uncover the most important bugs, while less critical system parts can be tested less thoroughly. This paper introduces a semantic approach to test coverage. Our starting point is a weighted fault model, which assigns a weight to each potential error in an implementation. We define a framework to express coverage measures that express how well a test suite covers such a specification, taking into account the error weight. Since our notions are semantic, they are insensitive to replacing a specification by one with equivalent behaviour.We present several algorithms that, given a certain minimality criterion, compute a minimal test suite with maximal coverage. These algorithms work on a syntactic representation of weighted fault models as fault automata. They are based on existing and novel optimization\ud
problems. Finally, we illustrate our approach by analyzing and comparing a number of test suites for a chat protocol
Regular Combinators for String Transformations
We focus on (partial) functions that map input strings to a monoid such as
the set of integers with addition and the set of output strings with
concatenation. The notion of regularity for such functions has been defined
using two-way finite-state transducers, (one-way) cost register automata, and
MSO-definable graph transformations. In this paper, we give an algebraic and
machine-independent characterization of this class analogous to the definition
of regular languages by regular expressions. When the monoid is commutative, we
prove that every regular function can be constructed from constant functions
using the combinators of choice, split sum, and iterated sum, that are analogs
of union, concatenation, and Kleene-*, respectively, but enforce unique (or
unambiguous) parsing. Our main result is for the general case of
non-commutative monoids, which is of particular interest for capturing regular
string-to-string transformations for document processing. We prove that the
following additional combinators suffice for constructing all regular
functions: (1) the left-additive versions of split sum and iterated sum, which
allow transformations such as string reversal; (2) sum of functions, which
allows transformations such as copying of strings; and (3) function
composition, or alternatively, a new concept of chained sum, which allows
output values from adjacent blocks to mix.Comment: This is the full version, with omitted proofs and constructions, of
the conference paper currently in submissio
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