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International Conference on Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation

VMCAI 2020: Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation pp 248–269Cite as

Cheap CTL Compassion in NuSMV

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Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNTCS,volume 11990)

Abstract

We discuss expansions of \(\mathsf {CTL}\) with connectives able to express Streett fairness objectives for single paths. We focus on \(\mathsf {(E)SFCTL}\): (Extended) Streett-Fair \(\mathsf {CTL}\) inspired by a seminal paper of Emerson and Lei. Unlike several other fair extensions of \(\mathsf {CTL}\), our entire formalism (not just a subclass of formulas in some canonical form) allows a succinct embedding into the \(\mu \)-calculus, while being able to express concisely all relevant types of path-based fairness objectives. We implement our syntax in the well-known symbolic model checker NuSMV, consequently also implementing \(\mathsf {CTL}\) model checking with “compassion” objectives. Since the \(\mu \)-calculus embedding requires only alternation depth two, the resulting specifications correspond to parity games with two priorities. This allows a comparison of the performance of our NuSMV\(^{\mathsf {sf}}\) with existing parity game solvers (both explicit and symbolic). The advantages of the symbolic approach seem to extend to fair model checking.

Keywords

  • Model checking
  • Fairness and compassion
  • CTL
  • \(\mu \)-calculus
  • NuSMV
  • Parity games

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The name “\(\mathsf {ECTL}^+\)” was used in the conference version [15].

  2. 2.

    Available online at https://git8.cs.fau.de/software/nusmvf.

  3. 3.

    An intuitive explanation: requiring that, e.g., \(\varphi _1\) and \(\varphi _2\) are witnessed infinitely often on a given path does not amount to requiring that \(\varphi _1 \wedge \varphi _2\) holds infinitely often, whereas \(\mathsf {EX}\) in front of either conjunct could deviate from the path in question.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge discussions with Tim A.C. Willemse on symbolic parity game solving and with Marco Roveri on the NuSMV model checker. Furthermore, we would like to thank the referees for feedback.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chair of Theoretical Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Martensstraße 3, 91058, Erlangen, Germany

    Daniel Hausmann, Tadeusz Litak, Christoph Rauch & Matthias Zinner

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  1. Daniel Hausmann
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Correspondence to Daniel Hausmann , Tadeusz Litak , Christoph Rauch or Matthias Zinner .

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  1. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany

    Dirk Beyer

  2. Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, Kaiserslautern, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany

    Dr. Damien Zufferey

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Hausmann, D., Litak, T., Rauch, C., Zinner, M. (2020). Cheap CTL Compassion in NuSMV. In: Beyer, D., Zufferey, D. (eds) Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation. VMCAI 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11990. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39322-9_12

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