Local Livelock Analysis of Component-Based Models

In previous work we have proposed a correct-by-construction approach for building deadlock-free CSP models. It contains a comprehensive set of composition rules that capture safe steps in the development of concurrent systems. In this paper, we extend that work by proposing and implementing a strategy for establishing livelock freedom based on constructive rules similar to those that ensure the absence of deadlock. Our method is based solely on the local analysis of the minimum sequences that lead the CSP model back to its initial state. The effectiveness of our livelock-analysis technique is demonstrated via three case studies. We compare the performance of our approach with that of two other techniques for livelock freedom verification: FDR2 and SLAP.