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A two-phase approximation for model checking probabilistic unbounded until properties of probabilistic systems

Published: 03 July 2012 Publication History

Abstract

We have developed a new approximate probabilistic model-checking method for untimed properties in probabilistic systems, expressed in a probabilistic temporal logic (PCTL, CSL). This method, in contrast to the existing ones, does not require the untimed until properties to be bounded a priori, where the bound refers to the number of discrete steps in the system required to verify the until property. The method consists of two phases. In the first phase, a suitable system- and property-dependent bound k0 is obtained automatically. In the second phase, the probability of satisfying the k0-bounded until property is computed as the estimate of the probability of satisfying the original unbounded until property. Both phases require only verification of bounded until properties, which can be effectively performed by simulation-based methods. We prove the correctness of the proposed two-phase method and present its optimized implementation in the widely used PRISM model-checking engine. We compare this implementation with sampling-based model-checking techniques implemented in two tools: PRISM and MRMC. We show that for several models these existing tools fail to compute the result, while the two-phase method successfully computes the result efficiently with respect to time and space.

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Cited By

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  • (2016)Reliability of Run-Time Quality-of-Service evaluation using parametric model checkingProceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/2884781.2884814(73-84)Online publication date: 14-May-2016
  • (2011)Statistical abstraction and model-checking of large heterogeneous systemsInternational Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer10.1007/s10009-011-0201-214:1(53-72)Online publication date: 21-May-2011

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology  Volume 21, Issue 3
June 2012
239 pages
ISSN:1049-331X
EISSN:1557-7392
DOI:10.1145/2211616
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 03 July 2012
Accepted: 01 February 2011
Revised: 01 December 2010
Received: 01 June 2010
Published in TOSEM Volume 21, Issue 3

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Author Tags

  1. CSL
  2. CTMC
  3. DTMC
  4. PCTL

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  • (2016)Reliability of Run-Time Quality-of-Service evaluation using parametric model checkingProceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/2884781.2884814(73-84)Online publication date: 14-May-2016
  • (2011)Statistical abstraction and model-checking of large heterogeneous systemsInternational Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer10.1007/s10009-011-0201-214:1(53-72)Online publication date: 21-May-2011

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