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A Statistical Approach to Test Stochastic and Probabilistic Systems

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Formal Methods and Software Engineering (ICFEM 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 5885))

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Abstract

In this paper we introduce a formal framework to test systems where non-deterministic decisions are probabilistically quantified and temporal information is defined by using random variables. We define an appropriate extension of the classical finite state machines formalism, widely used in formal testing approaches, to define the systems that we are interested in. First, we define a conformance relation to establish, with respect to a given specification, what a good implementation is. In order to decide whether a system is conforming, we apply different statistic techniques to determine whether the (unknown) probabilities and random variables governing the behaviour of the implementation match the (known) ones of the specification. Next, we introduce a notion of test case. Finally, we give an alternative characterization of the previous conformance relation based on how a set of test is passed by the implementation.

Research supported by the Spanish MEC project WEST/FAST (TIN2006-15578-C02-01), the MATES project (CCG08-UCM/TIC-4124) and by the UCM-BSCH programme to fund research groups (GR58/08 - group number 910606).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Sistemas Informáticos y Computación, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Mercedes G. Merayo & Manuel Núñez

  2. Software-Networks Department, Telecom & Management SudParis, 9, rue Charles Fourier, 91011, Evry Cedex, France

    Iksoon Hwang & Ana Cavalli

Authors
  1. Mercedes G. Merayo
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  2. Iksoon Hwang
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  3. Manuel Núñez
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  4. Ana Cavalli
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Coordenadora da Engenharia de Computação, Diretora de Publicações da SBC, Depto. Informática, ontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, ,, R. Marques de Sao Vicente 225 - Prédio do RDC - Sala 416, Rio de Jan,  

    Karin Breitman

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of York, ,, Heslington, YO10 5DD, York, UK,

    Ana Cavalcanti

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Merayo, M.G., Hwang, I., Núñez, M., Cavalli, A. (2009). A Statistical Approach to Test Stochastic and Probabilistic Systems. In: Breitman, K., Cavalcanti, A. (eds) Formal Methods and Software Engineering. ICFEM 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5885. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10373-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10373-5_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-10372-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-10373-5

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