Abstract
Fault-tolerant distributed algorithms play an important role in ensuring the reliability of many software applications. In this paper we consider distributed algorithms whose computations are organized in rounds. To verify the correctness of such algorithms, we reason about (i) properties (such as invariants) of the state, (ii) the transitions controlled by the algorithm, and (iii) the communication graph. We introduce a logic that addresses these points, and contains set comprehensions with cardinality constraints, function symbols to describe the local states of each process, and a limited form of quantifier alternation to express the verification conditions. We show its use in automating the verification of consensus algorithms. In particular, we give a semi-decision procedure for the unsatisfiability problem of the logic and identify a decidable fragment. We successfully applied our framework to verify the correctness of a variety of consensus algorithms tolerant to both benign faults (message loss, process crashes) and value faults (message corruption).
Supported by the National Research Network RiSE of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) through grant PROSEED and by the ERC Advanced Grant QUAREM.
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Drăgoi, C., Henzinger, T.A., Veith, H., Widder, J., Zufferey, D. (2014). A Logic-Based Framework for Verifying Consensus Algorithms. In: McMillan, K.L., Rival, X. (eds) Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation. VMCAI 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8318. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54013-4_10
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