REFINER: Towards Formal Verification of Model Transformations

Science of Computer Programming

2020

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Compositional model checking approaches attempt to limit state space explosion by iteratively combining behaviour of some of the components in the system and reducing the result modulo an appropriate equivalence relation. For an equivalence relation to be applicable, it should be a congruence for parallel composition where synchronisations between the components may be introduced. An equivalence relation preserving both safety and liveness properties is divergencepreserving branching bisimilarity (DPBB). It has long been generally assumed that DPBB is a congruence for parallel composition. Recently, a congruence format has been proposed that implies that this is the case [1]. In parallel, we were the first to prove this by means of a proof assistant (Coq) for the parallel composition of Labelled Transition Systems (LTSs) with synchronisation on their common alphabet [2]. In the current article, we remove that restriction. In addition, we show that DPBB is a congruence for LTS networks in which many LTSs are composed in parallel at once with support for multi-party synchronisation. Additionally, we discuss how to safely decompose an existing LTS network into components such that their recomposition is equivalent to the original LTS network. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness of compositional model checking with intermediate DPBB reductions, we discuss the results we obtained after having conducted a number of experiments.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compositional model checking with divergence preserving branching bisimilarity is lively

Putter

Lang²,

Science of Computer Programming

2020

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“…[10,16], using many different techniques [1,22]. In earlier work, we have developed a formal verification technique to determine whether the definition of a model transformation preserves specific safety or liveness properties, regardless of the model it is applied on [6,[24][25][26]. It is applicable on any modelling language with a formal semantics that can be captured by Labelled Transition Systems (LTSs), i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In our setting, the semantics of models is captured by LTSs, and the semantics of transformations is captured by systems of pairs of LTSs, describing which patterns in an input LTS should be transformed into which new patterns. By applying the technique from [6,[24][25][26] on those pairs of LTSs, we are able to determine whether transformation is guaranteed to preserve the structure of any LTS w.r.t. a particular temporal logic formula expressing a desired functional property.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Confluence Detection for Transformations of Labelled Transition Systems

Electron. Proc. Theor. Comput. Sci.

2015

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The development of complex component software systems can be made more manageable by first creating an abstract model and then incrementally adding details. Model transformation is an approach to add such details in a controlled way. In order for model transformation systems to be useful, it is crucial that they are confluent, i.e. that when applied on a given model, they will always produce a unique output model, independent of the order in which rules of the system are applied on the input. In this work, we consider Labelled Transition Systems (LTSs) to reason about the semantics of models, and LTS transformation systems to reason about model transformations. In related work, the problem of confluence detection has been investigated for general graph structures. We observe, however, that confluence can be detected more efficiently in special cases where the graphs have particular structural properties. In this paper, we present a number of observations to detect confluence of LTS transformation systems, and propose both a new confluence detection algorithm and a conflict resolution algorithm based on them.Comment: In Proceedings GaM 2015, arXiv:1504.0244

“…There are some techniques that can do this [ACL + 15, RW13], but it is often far from trivial to show that these are correct. This work is an extension of [PW16], where we formally proved the correctness of such a formal transformation verification technique proposed in [WE13,Wij13] and implemented in the tool Refiner [WE14]. It is applicable on models with a semantics that can be captured by Labelled Transition Systems (LTSs).…”

Section: Fig 1 Lts Transformation Verification With Refinermentioning

confidence: 99%

A formal verification technique for behavioural model-to-model transformations

Putter

2018

Form. Asp. Comput.

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Abstract. In Model Driven Software Engineering, models and model transformations are the primary artifacts when developing a software system. In such a workflow, model transformations are used to incrementally transform initial abstract models into concrete models containing all relevant system details. Over the years, various formal methods have been proposed and further developed to determine the functional correctness of models of concurrent systems. However, the formal verification of model transformations has so far not received as much attention. In this article, we propose a formal verification technique to determine that formalisations of such transformations in the form of rule systems are guaranteed to preserve functional properties, regardless of the models they are applied on. This work extends our earlier work in various ways. Compared to our earlier approaches, the current technique involves only up to n individual checks, with n the number of rules in the rule system, whereas previously, up to 2 n − 1 checks were required. Furthermore, a full correctness proof for the technique is presented, based on a formal proof conducted with the Coq proof assistant. Finally, we report on two sets of conducted experiments. In the first set, we compared traditional model checking with transformation verification, and in the second set, we compared the verification technique presented in this article with the previous version.