Iterative variable reordering: Taming huge system families

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Abstract

For the verification of systems using model-checking techniques, symbolic representations based on binary decision diagrams (BDDs) often help to tackle the well-known state-space explosion problem. Symbolic BDD-based representations have been also shown to be successful for the analysis of families of systems that arise, e.g., through configurable parameters or following the feature-oriented modeling approach. The state space of such system families face an additional exponential blowup in the number of parameters or features. It is well known that the order of variables in ordered BDDs is crucial for the size of the model representation. Especially for automatically generated models from real-world systems, family models might even be not constructible due to bad variable orders. In this paper we describe a technique, called iterative variable reordering, that can enable the construction of large-scale family models. We exemplify feasibility of our approach by means of an aircraft velocity control system with redundancy mechanisms modeled in the input language of the probabilistic model checker PRISM. We show that standard reordering and dynamic reordering techniques fail to construct the family model due to memory and time constraints, respectively, while the new iterative approach succeeds to generate a symbolic family model.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 4th Workshop on Models for Formal Analysis of Real Systems
EditorsAnsgar Fehnker, Hubert Garavel
Pages121-133
Number of pages13
Publication statusPublished - 26 Apr 2020
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesElectronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, EPTCS
Volume316
ISSN2075-2180

Conference

Title4th Workshop on Models for Formal Analysis of Real Systems, MARS 2020
Duration26 April 2020
CityDublin
CountryIreland

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-5321-9343/work/142236758

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas