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Verification of multiprocess probabilistic protocols

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Abstract

In this paper we demonstrate the utility of temporal logic to the formal verification of probabilistic distributed programs. The approach taken is to represent the quantitative notion of probabilistic computations by the qualitative abstraction ofextreme fairness. The method is illustrated first on the dining philosophers problem [3] and then on a new probabilistic symmetric solution to then-processes mutual exclusion problem. Two related solutions are presented corresponding to different assumptions about the granularity of a compound test.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel

    Amir Pnueli & Lenore Zuck

Authors
  1. Amir Pnueli
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  2. Lenore Zuck
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Additional information

Amir Pnueli, graduated at the Technion, Haifa, Israel 1962. Received a Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel, 1967.

He is currently a Professor of Computer Science at the Weizmann Institute. His research interests include the Semantics, Verification, Specification and Development of Concurrent and Distributed Systems using Temporal Logic and other Formalisms.

Lenore Zuck was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, on September 26, 1958. She received her B.Sc. degree in Computer Science from the Technion, Haifa, Israel in 1979, and the M.Sc. degree in Computer Science at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, in 1983, where she is currently completing her Ph.D. studies. Her areas of interest include the Analysis and Verification of Distributed and Probabilistic Systems and Pre-Classic Music.

The work of this author was supported by the Eshkol Fund

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Pnueli, A., Zuck, L. Verification of multiprocess probabilistic protocols. Distrib Comput 1, 53–72 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01843570

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