Sharif Digital Repository

In the IEEE 802.1D standard for the Media Access Control layer (MAC layer) bridges, there is an STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) definition, based on the algorithm that was proposed by Radia Perlman. In this paper, we give a formal proof for correctness of the STP algorithm by showing that finally a single node is selected as the root of the tree and the loops are eliminated correctly. We use formal inductive reasoning to establish these requirements. In order to ensure that the bridges behave correctly regardless of the topology of the surrounding bridges and LANs, the Rebeca, modular verification techniques are applied. These techniques are shown to be efficiently applicable in model checking... 

Software architectures and architectural styles are increasingly used for designing large-scale software systems. Alfa is a framework for the composition of style-based software architectures from a small set of primitives. It models the behavior of architectural components and connectors as orderings among events at their inputs and outputs. Formalizing such behavior is useful for checking conformance of architectures to their styles. We therefore propose a formal approach that uses data-abstract constraint automata to model the behavior of Alfa's compositions, and to verify their behavioral style conformance. We have also developed an automated conformance analyzer for Alfa. © 2004 IEEE  

Reo is an exogenous coordination language for compositional construction of component connectors based on a calculus of channels. Building automated tools to address such concerns as equivalence or containment of the behavior of two given connectors, verification of the behavior of a connector, etc. requires an operational semantic model suitable for model checking. In this paper we introduce constraint automata and propose them as a semantic model for Reo. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

Increasing use of networks and their complexity make the task of security analysis more and more complicated. Accordingly, automatic verification approaches have received more attention recently. In this paper, we investigate applying of an actor-based language based on reactive objects for analyzing a network environment communicating via Transport Protocol Layer (TCP). The formal foundation of the language and available tools for model checking provide us with formal verification support. Having the model of a typical network including client and server, we show how an attacker may combine simple attacks to construct a complex multiphase attack. We use Rebeca language to model the network... 

Rebeca is an actor-based language with formal semantics which is suitable for modeling concurrent and distributed systems and protocols. Due to its object model, partial order and symmetry detection and reduction techniques can be efficiently applied to dynamic Rebeca models. We present two approaches for detecting symmetry in Rebeca models: One that detects symmetry in the topology of inter-connections among objects and another one which exploits specific data structures to reflect internal symmetry in the internal structure of an object. The former approach is novel in that it does not require any input from the modeler and can deal with the dynamic changes of topology. This approach is... 

Vehicular ad hoc networks have attracted the attention of many researchers during the last years due to the emergence of autonomous vehicles and safety concerns. Most of the frameworks which are proposed for the modeling and analysis VANET applications make use of simulation techniques. Due to the high level of concurrency in these applications, simulation results do not guarantee the correct behavior of the system and more accurate analysis techniques are required. In this paper, we have developed a framework to provide model checking facilities for the analysis of VANET applications. To this end, an actor-based modeling language, Rebeca, is used which is equipped with a variety of model... 

Autonomous traffic control systems are large-scale systems with critical goals. To satisfy expected properties, these systems adapt themselves to possible changes in their environment and in the system itself. The adaptation may result in further changes propagated throughout the system. For each change and its consequent adaptation, assuring the satisfaction of properties of the system at runtime is important. A prominent approach to assure the correct behavior of these systems is verification at runtime, which has strict time and memory limitations. To tackle these limitations, we propose Magnifier, an iterative, incremental, and compositional verification approach that operates on an... 

Symmetry reduction is a promising technique for combatting state space explosion in model checking. The problem of finding the equivalence classes, i.e., the so-called orbits, of states under symmetry is a difficult problem known to be as hard as graph isomorphism. In this paper, we show how we can automatically find the orbits in an actor-based model, called Rebeca, without enforcing any restriction on the modeler. The proposed algorithm solves the orbit problem for Rebeca models in polynomial time. As a result, the simple actor-based Rebeca language can be utilized efficiently for modeling and verification of systems, without involving the modeler with the details of the verification... 

Composition of a concurrent system out of components involves coordination of their mutual interactions. In component-based construction, this coordination becomes the responsibility of the glue-code language and its underlying run-time middle-ware. Reo offers an expressive glue-language for construction of coordinating component connectors out of primitive channels. In this paper we consider the problem of synthesizing Reo coordination code from a specification of a behavior as a relation on scheduled-data streams. The specification is given as a constraint automaton that describes the desired input/output behavior at the ports of the components. The main contribution in this paper is an... 

Autonomous traffic control systems are large-scale systems with critical goals. To satisfy expected properties, these systems adapt themselves to possible changes in their environment and in the system itself. The adaptation may result in further changes propagated throughout the system. For each change and its consequent adaptation, assuring the satisfaction of properties of the system at runtime is important. A prominent approach to assure the correct behavior of these systems is verification at runtime, which has strict time and memory limitations. To tackle these limitations, we propose Magnifier, an iterative, incremental, and compositional verification approach that operates on an... 

We propose a compositional approach for the Partial Order Reduction (POR) in the state space generation of asynchronous timed actors. We define the concept of independent actors as the actors that do not send messages to a common actor. The approach avoids exploring unnecessary interleaving of executions of independent actors. It performs on a component-based model where actors from different components, except for the actors on borders, are independent. To alleviate the effect of the cross-border messages, we enforce a delay condition, ensuring that an actor introduces a delay in its execution before sending a message across the border of its component. Within each time unit, our technique... 

Self-adaptation is a well-known technique to handle growing complexities of software systems, where a system autonomously adapts itself in response to changes in a dynamic and unpredictable environment. With the increasing need for developing self-adaptive systems, providing a model and an implementation platform to facilitate integration of adaptation mechanisms into the systems and assuring their safety and quality is crucial. In this paper, we target Track-based Traffic Control Systems (TTCSs) in which the traffic flows through pre-specified sub-tracks and is coordinated by a traffic controller. We introduce a coordinated actor model to design self-adaptive TTCSs and provide a general... 

Self-adaptive systems are systems that automatically adapt in response to environmental and internal changes, such as possible failures and variations in resource availability. Such systems are often realized by a MAPE-K feedback loop, where Monitor, Analyze, Plan and Execute components have access to a runtime model of the system and environment which is kept in the Knowledge component. In order to provide guarantees on the correctness of a self-adaptive system at runtime, the MAPE-K feedback loop needs to be extended with assurance techniques. To address this issue, we propose a coordinated actor-based approach to build a reusable and scalable model@runtime for self-adaptive systems in the...