Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Communicating Hierarchical State Machines

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Automata, Languages and Programming

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1644))

Abstract

Hierarchical state machines are finite state machines whose states themselves can be other machines. In spite of their popularity in many modeling tools for software design, very little is known concerning their complexity and expressiveness. In this paper, we study these questions for hierarchical state machines as well as for communicating hierarchical state machines, that is, finite state machines extended with both hierarchy and concurrency. We present a comprehensive set of results characterizing (1) the complexity of the reachability, emptiness and universality problems, (2) the complexity of the language inclusion and equivalence problems, and (3) the succinctness relationships between different types of machines.

Supported in part by NSF CAREER award CCR-9734115 and by the DARPA grant NAG2-1214.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. R. Alur and M. Yannakakis. Model checking of hierarchical state machines. In Proc. Sixth FSE, pp. 175–188. 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  2. G. Booch, I. Jacobson, and J. Rumbaugh. Unified Modeling Language User Guide. Addison Wesley, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  3. E.M. Clarke and E.A. Emerson. Design and synthesis of synchronization skeletons using branching time temporal logic. In Proc. Workshop on Logic of Programs, LNCS 131, pp. 52–71. Springer-Verlag, 1981.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. E.M. Clarke and R.P. Kurshan. Computer-aided verification. IEEE Spectrum, 33(6):61–67, 1996.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. D. Drusinsky and D. Harel. On the power of bounded concurrency i: finite automata. Journal of the ACM, 41(3), 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  6. D. Harel. Statecharts: A visual formalism for complex systems. Science of Computer Programming, 8:231–274, 1987.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. D. Harel, O. Kupferman, and M.Y. Vardi. On the complexity of verifying concurrent transition systems. In CONCUR, LNCS 1243, pp. 258–272. 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  8. G.J. Holzmann. The model checker spin. IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, 23(5):279–295, 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. J.E. Hopcroft and J.D. Ullman. Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation. Addison-Wesley, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  10. B. Selic, G. Gullekson, and P.T. Ward. Real-time object oriented modeling and design. J. Wiley, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  11. M.Y. Vardi and P. Wolper. An automata-theoretic approach to automatic program verification. In Proc. First LICS, pp. 332–344, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania and Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, USA

    Rajeev Alur

  2. Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA

    Sampath Kannan

  3. Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, USA

    Mihalis Yannakakis

Authors
  1. Rajeev Alur
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sampath Kannan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mihalis Yannakakis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Computer Science, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Pod vodarenskou vezi 2, 182 07, Prague 8 - Liben, Czech Republic

    Jirí Wiedermann

  2. ILLC-WINS-University of Amsterdam, Plantage Muidergracht 24, 1018, TV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Peter van Emde Boas

  3. BRICS, Department of Computer Science, University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade, Bldg. 540, DK, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    Mogens Nielsen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Alur, R., Kannan, S., Yannakakis, M. (1999). Communicating Hierarchical State Machines. In: Wiedermann, J., van Emde Boas, P., Nielsen, M. (eds) Automata, Languages and Programming. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1644. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48523-6_14

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48523-6_14

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-66224-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48523-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation