Compositional Verification of Probabilistic Systems Using Learning

We present a fully automated technique for compositional verification of probabilistic systems. Our approach builds upon a recently proposed assume-guarantee framework for probabilistic automata, in which assumptions and guarantees are probabilistic safety properties, represented using finite automata. A limitation of this work is that the assumptions need to be created manually. To overcome this, we propose a novel learning technique based on the L* algorithm, which automatically generates probabilistic assumptions using the results of queries executed by a probabilistic model checker. Learnt assumptions either establish satisfaction of the verification problem or are used to generate a probabilistic counterexample that refutes it. In the case where an assumption cannot be generated, lower and upper bounds on the probability of satisfaction are produced. We illustrate the applicability of the approach on a range of case studies.

[1]  Nancy A. Lynch,et al.  Probabilistic Simulations for Probabilistic Processes , 1994, Nord. J. Comput..

[2]  Nancy A. Lynch,et al.  Switched PIOA: Parallel composition via distributed scheduling , 2006, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[3]  Hongyang Qu,et al.  Assume-Guarantee Verification for Probabilistic Systems , 2010, TACAS.

[4]  Benedikt Bollig,et al.  libalf: The Automata Learning Framework , 2010, CAV.

[5]  Joost-Pieter Katoen,et al.  Counterexample Generation in Probabilistic Model Checking , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[6]  Antonín Kucera,et al.  On the Controller Synthesis for Finite-State Markov Decision Processes , 2005, Fundam. Informaticae.

[7]  Christel Baier,et al.  Principles of model checking , 2008 .

[8]  Dana Angluin,et al.  Learning Regular Sets from Queries and Counterexamples , 1987, Inf. Comput..

[9]  Howard Barringer,et al.  Learning to divide and conquer: applying the L* algorithm to automate assume-guarantee reasoning , 2008, Formal Methods Syst. Des..

[10]  Kousha Etessami,et al.  Multi-Objective Model Checking of Markov Decision Processes , 2007, Log. Methods Comput. Sci..

[11]  Thomas A. Henzinger,et al.  Compositional Methods for Probabilistic Systems , 2001, CONCUR.

[12]  Andrew Hinton,et al.  PRISM: A Tool for Automatic Verification of Probabilistic Systems , 2006, TACAS.

[13]  Nancy A. Lynch,et al.  Observing Branching Structure through Probabilistic Contexts , 2007, SIAM J. Comput..

[14]  Christel Baier,et al.  Controller Synthesis for Probabilistic Systems , 2004, IFIP TCS.

[15]  Pedro R. D'Argenio,et al.  Significant Diagnostic Counterexamples in Probabilistic Model Checking , 2008, Haifa Verification Conference.

[16]  Roberto Segala,et al.  Verification of the randomized consensus algorithm of Aspnes and Herlihy: a case study , 2000, Distributed Computing.