Verification of parameterized hierarchical state machines using action language verifier

• Published in: Proceedings of the 2nd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for Co-Design pp. 79 - 88
• Main Authors: Yavuz-Kahveci, T., Bultan, T.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC, USA IEEE Computer Society 11.07.2005; IEEE
• Series: ACM Conferences
• Subjects: Airports; Arithmetic; Boolean functions; Computer science; Control systems; Data structures; Engines; Libraries; Object oriented modeling; Software and its engineering; Software and its engineering > Software organization and properties; Software and its engineering > Software organization and properties > Software functional properties; Software and its engineering > Software organization and properties > Software functional properties > Formal methods; Software and its engineering > Software organization and properties > Software functional properties > Formal methods > Model checking; Software systems; Theory of computation; Theory of computation > Logic; counting abstraction technique; linear arithmetic expression; temporal logic; ALV; airport ground traffic controller; hierarchical state machines verification; infinite-state symbolic model checker; formal semantics; parameterized integer constants; Boolean logic combination; asynchronous process specification; integer variables; action language verifier
• ISBN: 9780780392274; 0780392272
• DOI: 10.1109/MEMCOD.2005.1487897

Action language verifier (ALV) is an infinite-state symbolic model checker. ALV can verify (or falsify, by generating counter-examples) temporal logic properties of systems that can be modeled using a combination of Boolean logic and linear arithmetic expressions on Boolean, enumerated and (possibly unbounded) integer variables and parameterized integer constants. In this paper, we apply ALV to the verification of parameterized hierarchical state machine specifications. We extend the standard notation for hierarchical state machines by introducing primitives for explicit specification of asynchronous processes and their finite and parameterized instantiations. We define the formal semantics of these primitives, where the states of the parameterized processes are mapped to integer variables using the counting abstraction technique. We apply the presented approach to the specification and analysis of an airport ground traffic controller and verify several correctness properties of this specification using ALV.