Numerical vs. statistical probabilistic model checking

Younes, H.L.S., Kwiatkowska, M., Norman, G. and Parker, D. (2006) Numerical vs. statistical probabilistic model checking. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT), 8(3), pp. 216-228. (doi: 10.1007/s10009-005-0187-8)

Abstract

Numerical analysis based on uniformisation and statistical techniques based on sampling and simulation are two distinct approaches for transient analysis of stochastic systems. We compare the two solution techniques when applied to the verification of time-bounded until formulae in the temporal stochastic logic CSL, both theoretically and through empirical evaluation on a set of case studies. Our study differs from most previous comparisons of numerical and statistical approaches in that CSL model checking is a hypothesis testing problem rather than a parameter estimation problem. We can therefore rely on highly efficient sequential acceptance sampling tests, which enables statistical solution techniques to quickly return a result with some uncertainty. We also propose a novel combination of the two solution techniques for verifying CSL queries with nested probabilistic operators.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Norman, Dr Gethin
• Authors: Younes, H.L.S., Kwiatkowska, M., Norman, G., and Parker, D.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Journal Name: International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer (STTT)
• ISSN: 1433-2779
• ISSN (Online): 1433-2787