Exact and approximate strategies for symmetry reduction in model checking

Donaldson, A.F. and Miller, A. (2006) Exact and approximate strategies for symmetry reduction in model checking. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 4085, pp. 541-556. (doi: 10.1007/11813040)

Abstract

Symmetry reduction techniques can help to combat the state space explosion problem for model checking, but are restricted by the hard problem of determining equivalence of states during search. Consequently, existing symmetry reduction packages can only exploit full symmetry between system components, as checking the equivalence of states is straightforward in this special case. We present a framework for symmetry reduction with an arbitrary group of structural symmetries. By generalising existing techniques for efficiently exploiting symmetry, and introducing an approximate strategy for use with groups for which fast, exact strategies are not available, our approach allows for significant state-space reduction with minimal time overhead. We show how computational group theoretic techniques can be used to analyse the structure of a symmetry group so that an appropriate symmetry reduction strategy can be chosen, and we describe a symmetry reduction package for the Spin model checker which interfaces with the computational algebra system Gap. Experimental results on a variety of Promela models illustrate the effectiveness of our methods.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Promela/Spin, model checking, symmetry, computational group theory, Gap
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Miller, Professor Alice
• Authors: Donaldson, A.F., and Miller, A.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Journal Name: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Publisher: Springer
• ISSN: 0302-9743
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2006 Springer
• First Published: First published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4085:541-556
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher