Mechanizing a Proof-Relevant Logical Relation for Timed Message-Passing Protocols

TL;DR

This paper presents the mechanization of a proof-relevant logical relation for timed message-passing protocols in a proof assistant, enabling formal verification of timing constraints in heterogeneous systems.

Contribution

It formalizes and mechanizes a complex logical relation with trajectories in Rocq, supporting interleaving, partitioning, and concatenation for timed protocol verification.

Findings

Successfully mechanized the logical relation in Rocq

Supported complex trajectory manipulations

Facilitated formal verification of timed message protocols

Abstract

Semantic typing has become a powerful tool for program verification, applying the technique of logical relations as not only a proof method, but also a device for prescribing program behavior. In recent work, Yao et al. scaled semantic typing to the verification of timed message-passing protocols, which are prevalent in, e.g., IoT and real-time systems applications. The appeal of semantic typing in this context is precisely because of its ability to support typed and untyped program components alike -- including physical objects -- which caters to the heterogeneity of these applications. Another demand inherent to these applications is timing: constraining the time or time window within which a message exchange must happen. Yao et al. equipped their logical relation not only with temporal predicates, but also with computable trajectories, to supply the evidence that an inhabitant can step from one time point to another one. While Yao et al. provide the formalization for such a verification tool, it lacks a mechanization. Mechanizing the system would not only provide a machine proof for it, but also facilitate scalability for future extensions and applications. This paper tackles the challenge of mechanizing the resulting proof-relevant logical relation in a proof assistant. allowing trajectories to be interleaved, partitioned, and concatenated, while the intended equality on trajectories is the equality of their graphs when seen as processes indexed by time. Unfortunately, proof assistants based on intensional type theory only have modest support for such equations, forcing a prolific use of transports. This paper reports on the process of mechanizing Yao et al.'s results, comprising the logical relation, the algebra of computable trajectories with supporting lemmas, and the fundamental theorem of the logical relation, in the Rocq theorem prover.