On (Omega-)Regular Model Checking

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of generic acceleration techniques for regular model checking of infinite-state systems, developing a new approach to iterating transducers that broadens applicability and improves performance.

Contribution

The authors introduce a novel method for iterating transducers in regular model checking, extending the applicability of generic techniques beyond previous limitations.

Findings

New transducer iteration approach with broad scope

Improved performance over existing generic techniques

Enhanced applicability to various infinite-state systems

Abstract

Checking infinite-state systems is frequently done by encoding infinite sets of states as regular languages. Computing such a regular representation of, say, the set of reachable states of a system requires acceleration techniques that can finitely compute the effect of an unbounded number of transitions. Among the acceleration techniques that have been proposed, one finds both specific and generic techniques. Specific techniques exploit the particular type of system being analyzed, e.g. a system manipulating queues or integers, whereas generic techniques only assume that the transition relation is represented by a finite-state transducer, which has to be iterated. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of using generic techniques in cases where only specific techniques have been exploited so far. Finding that existing generic techniques are often not applicable in cases easily handled by specific techniques, we have developed a new approach to iterating transducers. This new approach builds on earlier work, but exploits a number of new conceptual and algorithmic ideas, often induced with the help of experiments, that give it a broad scope, as well as good performances.