An Automata-Theoretic Approach to the Verification of Distributed Algorithms

We introduce an automata-theoretic method for the verification of distributed algorithms running on ring networks. In a distributed algorithm, an arbitrary number of processes cooperate to achieve a common goal (e.g., elect a leader). Processes have unique identifiers (pids) from an infinite, totally ordered domain. An algorithm proceeds in synchronous rounds, each round allowing a process to perform a bounded sequence of actions such as send or receive a pid, store it in some register, and compare register contents wrt. the associated total order. An algorithm is supposed to be correct independently of the number of processes. To specify correctness properties, we introduce a logic that can reason about processes and pids. Referring to leader election, it may say that, at the end of an execution, each process stores the maximum pid in some dedicated register. Since the verification of distributed algorithms is undecidable, we propose an underapproximation technique, which bounds the number of rounds. This is an appealing approach, as the number of rounds needed by a distributed algorithm to conclude is often exponentially smaller than the number of processes. We provide an automata-theoretic solution, reducing model checking to emptiness for alternating two-way automata on words. Overall, we show that round-bounded verification of distributed algorithms over rings is PSPACE-complete.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figure

Analyzing Timed Systems Using Tree Automata

Timed systems, such as timed automata, are usually analyzed using their operational semantics on timed words. The classical region abstraction for timed automata reduces them to (untimed) finite state automata with the same time-abstract properties, such as state reachability. We propose a new technique to analyze such timed systems using finite tree automata instead of finite word automata. The main idea is to consider timed behaviors as graphs with matching edges capturing timing constraints. When a family of graphs has bounded tree-width, they can be interpreted in trees and MSO-definable properties of such graphs can be checked using tree automata. The technique is quite general and applies to many timed systems. In this paper, as an example, we develop the technique on timed pushdown systems, which have recently received considerable attention. Further, we also demonstrate how we can use it on timed automata and timed multi-stack pushdown systems (with boundedness restrictions)

Revisiting Underapproximate Reachability for Multipushdown Systems

Boolean programs with multiple recursive threads can be captured as pushdown automata with multiple stacks. This model is Turing complete, and hence, one is often interested in analyzing a restricted class that still captures useful behaviors. In this paper, we propose a new class of bounded under approximations for multi-pushdown systems, which subsumes most existing classes. We develop an efficient algorithm for solving the under-approximate reachability problem, which is based on efficient fix-point computations. We implement it in our tool BHIM and illustrate its applicability by generating a set of relevant benchmarks and examining its performance. As an additional takeaway, BHIM solves the binary reachability problem in pushdown automata. To show the versatility of our approach, we then extend our algorithm to the timed setting and provide the first implementation that can handle timed multi-pushdown automata with closed guards.Comment: 52 pages, Conference TACAS 202

Register Transducers Are Marble Transducers

Deterministic two-way transducers define the class of regular functions from words to words. Alur and Cerný introduced an equivalent model of transducers with registers called copyless streaming string transducers. In this paper, we drop the “copyless” restriction on these machines and show that they are equivalent to two-way transducers enhanced with the ability to drop marks, named “marbles”, on the input. We relate the maximal number of marbles used with the amount of register copies performed by the streaming string transducer. Finally, we show that the class membership problems associated with these models are decidable. Our results can be interpreted in terms of program optimization for simple recursive and iterative programs.SCOPUS: cp.pinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Weighted Tiling Systems for Graphs: Evaluation Complexity

We consider weighted tiling systems to represent functions from graphs to a commutative semiring such as the Natural semiring or the Tropical semiring. The system labels the nodes of a graph by its states, and checks if the neighbourhood of every node belongs to a set of permissible tiles, and assigns a weight accordingly. The weight of a labeling is the semiring-product of the weights assigned to the nodes, and the weight of the graph is the semiring-sum of the weights of labelings. We show that we can model interesting algorithmic questions using this formalism - like computing the clique number of a graph or computing the permanent of a matrix. The evaluation problem is, given a weighted tiling system and a graph, to compute the weight of the graph. We study the complexity of the evaluation problem and give tight upper and lower bounds for several commutative semirings. Further we provide an efficient evaluation algorithm if the input graph is of bounded tree-width

Aperiodic Weighted Automata and Weighted First-Order Logic

By fundamental results of Sch\"utzenberger, McNaughton and Papert from the 1970s, the classes of first-order definable and aperiodic languages coincide. Here, we extend this equivalence to a quantitative setting. For this, weighted automata form a general and widely studied model. We define a suitable notion of a weighted first-order logic. Then we show that this weighted first-order logic and aperiodic polynomially ambiguous weighted automata have the same expressive power. Moreover, we obtain such equivalence results for suitable weighted sublogics and finitely ambiguous or unambiguous aperiodic weighted automata. Our results hold for general weight structures, including all semirings, average computations of costs, bounded lattices, and others.Comment: An extended abstract of the paper appeared at MFCS'1

A Unifying Survey on Weighted Logics and Weighted Automata: Core Weighted Logic: Minimal and Versatile Specification of Quantitative Properties

International audienceLogical formalisms equivalent to weighted automata have been the topic of numerous research papers in the recent years. It started with the seminal result by Droste and Gastin on weighted logics over semir-ings for words. It has been extended in two dimensions by many authors. First, the weight domain has been extended to valuation monoids, valuation structures, etc., to capture more quantitative properties. Along another dimension, different structures such as ranked or unranked trees, nested words, Mazurkiewiz traces, etc., have been considered. The long and involved proofs of equivalences in all these papers are implicitely based on the same core arguments. This article provides a meta-theorem which unifies these different approaches. Towards this, we first introduce a core weighted logic with a minimal number of features and a simplified syntax. Then, we define a new semantics for weighted automata and weighted logics in two phases—an abstract semantics based on multisets of weight structures (independent of particular weight domains) followed by a concrete semantics. We show at the level of the abstract semantics that weighted automata and core weighted logic have the same expressive power. We show how previous results can be recovered from our result by logical reasoning. In this paper, we prove the meta-theorem for words, ranked and unranked trees, showing the robustness of our approach