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Verifying specifications with associated attributes in graph transformation systems

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Abstract

Graph transformation is an important modeling and analysis technique widely applied in software engineering. The attributes can naturally conceptualize the properties of the modeled artifacts. However, the lack of support for the specification of such attribute correspondence by ordinary propositional temporal logics hampers its further application during verification. Different from the theoretical investigations on quantified second order logics, we propose a practical and light-weight approach for the verification of this kind of temporal specifications with associated attributes. Particularly, we apply our approach and extend the generalpurpose graph transformation modeling tool: Groove. Moreover, symmetry reduction techniques are exploited to reduce the number of states. Experiments with performance evaluations complement our discussion and demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of our approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Yu Zhou, Yankai Huang, Ou Wei & Zhiqiu Huang

  2. State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Yu Zhou

Authors
  1. Yu Zhou
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  2. Yankai Huang
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  3. Ou Wei
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  4. Zhiqiu Huang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yu Zhou.

Additional information

Yu Zhou is an associate professor at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China. He received his PhD in software engineering from Nanjing University in 2009. In 2010, he was a Post-doc at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. His research interests are mainly in software verification and evolution analysis.

Yankai Huang has been a master candidate at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China from 2012. His main research interests include formal methods and model checking.

Ou Wei is an associate professor at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China. He received his PhD in software engineering from University of Toronto, Canada in 2008. His main research interests include software analysis and formal verification.

Zhiqiu Huang is now a professor at the College of Computer Science and Technology in Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China. His research focuses on the safety and security of high assurance and critical computing systems.

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Zhou, Y., Huang, Y., Wei, O. et al. Verifying specifications with associated attributes in graph transformation systems. Front. Comput. Sci. 9, 364–374 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11704-015-4290-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11704-015-4290-4

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