Our growing dependence on increasingly complex computer and software systems necessitates the development of formalisms, techniques, and tools for assessing functional properties of these systems. One such technique that has emerged in the last twenty years is model checking, which systematically (and automatically) checks whether a model of a given system satisfies a desired property such as deadlock freedom, invariants, and request-response properties. This automated technique for verification and debugging has developed into a mature and widely used approach with many applications. Principles of Model Checking offers a comprehensive introduction to model checking that is not only a text suitable for classroom use but also a valuable reference for researchers and practitioners in the field. The book begins with the basic principles for modeling concurrent and communicating systems, introduces different classes of properties (including safety and liveness), presents the notion of fairness, and provides automata-based algorithms for these properties. It introduces the temporal logics LTL and CTL, compares them, and covers algorithms for verifying these logics, discussing real-time systems as well as systems subject to random phenomena. Separate chapters treat such efficiency-improving techniques as abstraction and symbolic manipulation. The book includes an extensive set of examples (most of which run through several chapters) and a complete set of basic results accompanied by detailed proofs. Each chapter concludes with a summary, bibliographic notes, and an extensive list of exercises of both practical and theoretical nature.

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Principles of Model Checking

N G van Kampen 1981 Amsterdam: North-Holland xiv + 419 pp price Dfl 180 This is a book which, at a lower price, could be expected to become an essential part of the library of every physical scientist concerned with problems involving fluctuations and stochastic processes, as well as those who just enjoy a beautifully written book. It provides an extensive graduate-level introduction which is clear, cautious, interesting and readable.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9112/34/4/040/pdf

Stochastic Processes in Physics and Chemistry

This paper describes a major new release of the PRISMprobabilistic model checker, adding, in particular, quantitative verification of (priced) probabilistic timed automata. These model systems exhibiting probabilistic, nondeterministic and real-time characteristics. In many application domains, all three aspects are essential; this includes, for example, embedded controllers in automotive or avionic systems, wireless communication protocols such as Bluetooth or Zigbee, and randomised security protocols. PRISM, which is open-source, also contains several new components that are of independent use. These include: an extensible toolkit for building, verifying and refining abstractions of probabilistic models; an explicit-state probabilistic model checking library; a discrete-event simulation engine for statistical model checking; support for generation of optimal adversaries/strategies; and a benchmark suite.

http://www.prismmodelchecker.org/papers/cav11.pdf

PRISM 4.0: verification of probabilistic real-time systems

This paper presents the overal structure, the design criteria, and the main features of the tool box Uppaal. It gives a detailed user guide which describes how to use the various tools of Uppaal version 2.02 to construct abstract models of a real-time system, to simulate its dynamical behavior, to specify and verify its safety and bounded liveness properties in terms of its model. In addition, the paper also provides a short review on case-studies where Uppaal is applied, as well as references to its theoretical foundation.

UPPAAL in a Nutshell

Real and Complex Analysis

BURS theory provides a powerful mechanism to efficiently generate pattern matches in a given expression tree. BURS, which stands for bottom-up rewrite system, is based on term rewrite systems, to which costs are added. We formalise the underlying theory, and derive an algorithm that computes all pattern matches. This algorithm terminates if the term rewrite system is finite. We couple this algorithm with the well-known search algorithm A ∗ that carries out pattern selection. The search algorithm is directed by a cost heuristic that estimates the minimum cost of code that has yet to be generated. The advantage of using a search algorithm is that we need to compute only those costs that may be part of an optimal rewrite sequence (and not the costs of all possible rewrite sequences as in dynamic programming). A system that implements the algorithms presented in this work has been built.

Code Generation based on formal BURS theory and heuristic search

This paper gives a bird's-eye view of the various ingredients that make up a modern, model-checking-based approach to performability evaluation: Markov reward models, temporal logics and continuous stochastic logic, model-checking algorithms, bisimulation and the handling of non-determinism. A short historical account as well as a large case study complete this picture. In this way, we show convincingly that the smart combination of performability evaluation with stochastic model-checking techniques, developed over the last decade, provides a powerful and unified method of performability evaluation, thereby combining the advantages of earlier approaches.

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Model checking for performability

This paper reviews the model of interactive Markov chains (IMCs, for short), an extension of labelled transition systems with exponentially delayed transitions. We show that IMCs are closed under parallel composition and hiding, and show how IMCs can be compositionally aggregated prior to analysis by e.g., bisimulation minimisation or aggressive abstraction based on simulation pre-congruences. We survey some recent analysis techniques for IMCs, i.e., explaining how measures such as reachability probabilities can be obtained. Finally, we demonstrate that IMCs are a natural (and simple) semantic model for stochastic process algebras and generalised stochastic Petri nets and can be used for engineering formalisms such as AADL and dynamic fault trees.

The How and Why of Interactive Markov Chains

Probabilistic Automata (PAs) are a widely-recognized mathematical framework for the specification and analysis of systems with non-deterministic and stochastic behaviors. This paper proposes Abstract Probabilistic Automata (APAs), that is a novel abstraction model for PAs. In APAs uncertainty of the non-deterministic choices is modeled by may/must modalities on transitions while uncertainty of the stochastic behaviour is expressed by (underspecified) stochastic constraints. We have developed a complete abstraction theory for PAs, and also propose the first specification theory for them. Our theory supports both satisfaction and refinement operators, together with classical stepwise design operators. In addition, we study the link between specification theories and abstraction in avoiding the state-space explosion problem.

Abstract Probabilistic Automata

This paper proposes design concepts that allow the conception, understanding and development of complex technical structures for open distributed systems. The proposed concepts are related to, and partially motivated by, the present work on Open Distributed Processing (ODP). As opposed to the current ODP approach, the concepts are aimed at supporting a design trajectory with several, related abstraction levels. Simple examples are used to illustrate the proposed concepts.

Joost-Pieter Katoen

Papers

Code Generation based on formal BURS theory and heuristic search

Model checking for performability

The How and Why of Interactive Markov Chains

Abstract Probabilistic Automata

A design model for Open Distributed Processing systems