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Minimal Separating Sequences for All Pairs of States

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Language and Automata Theory and Applications (LATA 2016)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 9618))

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Abstract

Finding minimal separating sequences for all pairs of inequivalent states in a finite state machine is a classic problem in automata theory. Sets of minimal separating sequences, for instance, play a central role in many conformance testing methods. Moore has already outlined a partition refinement algorithm that constructs such a set of sequences in \(\mathcal {O}(mn)\) time, where m is the number of transitions and n is the number of states. In this paper, we present an improved algorithm based on the minimization algorithm of Hopcroft that runs in \(\mathcal {O}(m \log n)\) time. The efficiency of our algorithm is empirically verified and compared to the traditional algorithm.

Supported by NWO project 628.001.009 on Learning Extended State Machines for Malware Analysis (LEMMA).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Available at https://gitlab.science.ru.nl/rick/partition/.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Computing and Information Sciences, Radboud University, Toernooiveld 212, 6525 EC, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Rick Smetsers, Joshua Moerman & David N. Jansen

Authors
  1. Rick Smetsers
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  2. Joshua Moerman
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  3. David N. Jansen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rick Smetsers .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain

    Adrian-Horia Dediu

  2. Czech Technical University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Jan Janoušek

  3. Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain

    Carlos Martín-Vide

  4. Justus Liebig University Giessen, Gießen, Germany

    Bianca Truthe

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Smetsers, R., Moerman, J., Jansen, D.N. (2016). Minimal Separating Sequences for All Pairs of States. In: Dediu, AH., Janoušek, J., Martín-Vide, C., Truthe, B. (eds) Language and Automata Theory and Applications. LATA 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9618. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30000-9_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30000-9_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-29999-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-30000-9

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