Automated Verification of Dense-Time MTL Specifications Via Discrete-Time Approximation

Monographs in Theoretical Computer Science. An EATCS Series

Mandrioli

Morzenti

et al. 2012

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The increasing relevance of areas such as real-time and embedded systems, pervasive computing, hybrid systems control, and biological and social systems modeling is bringing a growing attention to the temporal aspects of computing, not only in the computer science domain, but also in more traditional fields of engineering.This article surveys various approaches to the formal modeling and analysis of the temporal features of computer-based systems, with a level of detail that is also suitable for nonspecialists. In doing so, it provides a unifying framework, rather than just a comprehensive list of formalisms.The article first lays out some key dimensions along which the various formalisms can be evaluated and compared. Then, a significant sample of formalisms for time modeling in computing are presented and discussed according to these dimensions. The adopted perspective is, to some extent, historical, going from "traditional" models and formalisms to more modern ones.

Section: The Time Advancement Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Time in Computing

Monographs in Theoretical Computer Science. An EATCS Series

Mandrioli

Morzenti

et al. 2012

Self Cite

“…This choice is mainly justified by the fact that logic formulas are naturally compositional, hence our ultimate goal of formally combining mixed models is facilitated by this choice. It is well-known that MTL is undecidable over dense time [4]; this hurdle is however practically mitigated by employing the discretization technique for MTL introduced -and demonstrated to be practically appealing -in [16]. Note that the undecidability of dense-time MTL entails that the reduction technique must be incomplete, i.e., there are cases in which we are unable to have a conclusive outcome to the verification problem.…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It involves an automated translation of the operational part into temporal logic notation, based on an MTL axiomatization discussed in this paper. The resulting MTL model, describing both the system and the properties to be verified, is then discretized according to the techniques introduced in [16]. The discrete-time approximation can be analyzed through conventional tools; we provide an implementation based on the ot bounded satisfiability checker [32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An interesting auxiliary contribution of the discretizable axiomatization of TA in MTL is a set of "rules of thumb" about how to describe systems based on the notion of state and transition with a logic formalism, in a way which is also amenable to discretization (according to the notion of [16]). Section 4 discusses this issue with great detail.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Practical Automated Partial Verification of Multi-paradigm Real-Time Models

Formal Methods and Software Engineering

Pradella

Rossi

2008

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This article introduces a fully automated verification technique that permits to analyze real-time systems described using a continuous notion of time and a mixture of operational (i.e., automata-based) and descriptive (i.e., logic-based) formalisms. The technique relies on the reduction, under reasonable assumptions, of the continuous-time verification problem to its discrete-time counterpart. This reconciles in a viable and effective way the dense/discrete and operational/descriptive dichotomies that are often encountered in practice when it comes to specifying and analyzing complex critical systems. The article investigates the applicability of the technique through a significant example centered on a communication protocol. More precisely, concurrent runs of the protocol are formalized by parallel instances of a Timed Automaton, while the synchronization rules between these instances are specified through Metric Temporal Logic formulas, thus creating a multi-paradigm model. Verification tests run on this model using a bounded validity checker implementing the technique show consistent results and interesting performances.

“…In previous work [8,7], we introduced the notion of non-Berkeleyness: 2 a densetime behavior is non-Berkeley for some δ > 0 if δ time units elapse between any two consecutive state transitions. In this paper we show that this notion is similar, but different, than the notion of bounded variability; we also introduce a corresponding definition of non-Berkeleyness for timed words.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MTL with Bounded Variability: Decidability and Complexity

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Rossi

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Abstract. This paper investigates the properties of Metric Temporal Logic (MTL) over models in which time is dense but phenomena are constrained to have bounded variability. Contrary to the case of generic dense-time behaviors, MTL is proved to be fully decidable over models with bounded variability, if the variability bound is given. In these decidable cases, MTL complexity is shown to match that of simpler decidable logics such as MITL. On the contrary, MTL is undecidable if all behaviors with variability bounded by some generic constant are considered, but with an undecidability degree that is lower than in the case of generic behaviors.