Although model checking is heavily used in the hardware domain, it did not take off in software engineering yet. One of the possible reasons is that software models are very complex. They integrate many dimensions such as data types and concurrency, leading to the infamous state space explosion problem. This article introduces the Algebraic Petri Nets Analyzer (AlPiNA), a symbolic model checker for High-level Petri nets. It is comprised of two independent modules: a GUI plug-in for Eclipse and an underlying model checking engine. AlPiNA's goal is to perform efficient and user-friendly model checking of large software systems. This is achieved by separating the model and its properties from the optimisation artifacts. This article describes the features that AlPiNA provides to the user for designing models and validating properties. It also presents the techniques and artifacts used for tuning validation performance, along with some theoretical background.
Abstract. AlPiNA is a symbolic model checker for High Level Petri nets. It is comprised of two independent modules: a GUI plugin for Eclipse and an underlying model checking engine. AlPiNA's objective is to perform efficient and user-friendly, easy to use model checking of large software systems. This is achieved by separating the model and its properties from the model checking-related concerns: the users can describe and perform checks on a high-level model without having to master lowlevel techniques. This article describes the features that AlPiNA provides to the user for specifying models and properties to validate, followed by the techniques that it implements for tuning validation performance.
Abstract. AlPiNA is a graphical editor and model checker for a class of highlevel Petri nets called Algebraic Petri Nets. Its main purpose is to perform reachability checks on complex models. It performs symbolic model checking based on ΣDD, an efficient evolution in the Decision Diagrams field, using novel techniques such as algebraic clustering and algebraic unfolding. AlPiNA offers a user-friendly interface, and is easily extensible.
Modularity is a mandatory principle to apply Petri nets to real world-sized systems. Modular extensions of Petri nets allow to create complex models by combining smaller entities. They facilitate the modeling and verification of large systems by applying a divide and conquer approach and promoting reuse. Modularity includes a wide range of notions such as encapsulation, hierarchy and instantiation. Over the years, Petri nets have been extended to include these mechanisms in many different ways. The heterogeneity of such extensions and their definitions makes it difficult to reason about their common features at a general level. We propose in this article an approach to standardize the semantics of modular Petri nets formalisms, with the objective of gathering even the most complex modular features from the literature. This is achieved with a new Petri nets formalism, called the LLAMAS Language for Advanced Modular Algebraic Nets (LLAMAS). We focus principally on the composition mechanism of LLAMAS, while introducing the rest of the language with an example. The composition mechanism is introduced both informally and with formal definitions. Our approach has two positive outcomes. First, the definition of new formalisms is facilitated, by providing common ground for the definition of their semantics. Second, it is possible to reason at a general level on the most advanced verification techniques, such as the recent advances in the domain of decision diagrams.
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