We present a novel method for computing reachability probabilities of parametric discrete-time Markov chains whose transition probabilities are fractions of polynomials over a set of parameters. Our algorithm is based on two key ingredients: a graph decomposition into strongly connected subgraphs combined with a novel factorization strategy for polynomials. Experimental evaluations show that these approaches can lead to a speed-up of up to several orders of magnitude in comparison to existing approaches
Rational verification is the problem of determining which temporal logic properties will hold in a multi-agent system, under the assumption that agents in the system act rationally, by choosing strategies that collectively form a game-theoretic equilibrium. Previous work in this area has largely focussed on deterministic systems. In this paper, we develop the theory and algorithms for rational verification in probabilistic systems. We focus on concurrent stochastic games (CSGs), which can be used to model uncertainty and randomness in complex multi-agent environments. We study the rational verification problem for both non-cooperative games and cooperative games in the qualitative probabilistic setting. In the former case, we consider LTL properties satisfied by the Nash equilibria of the game and in the latter case LTL properties satisfied by the core. In both cases, we show that the problem is 2EXPTIME-complete, thus not harder than the much simpler verification problem of model checking LTL properties of systems modelled as Markov decision processes (MDPs).
With numerous specialised technologies available to industry, it has become increasingly frequent for computer systems to be composed of heterogeneous components built over, and using, different technologies and languages. While this enables developers to use the appropriate technologies for specific contexts, it becomes more challenging to ensure the correctness of the overall system. In this paper we propose a framework to enable extensible technology agnostic runtime verification and we present an extension of polyLarva, a runtime-verification tool able to handle the monitoring of heterogeneous-component systems. The approach is then applied to a case study of a component-based artefact using different technologies, namely C and Java.
Stream Runtime Verification is a formal dynamic analysis technique that generalizes runtime verification algorithms from temporal logics like LTL to stream monitoring, allowing to compute richer verdicts than Booleans (including quantitative and arbitrary data). In this paper we study the problem of implementing an SRV engine that is truly extensible to arbitrary data theories, and we propose a solution as a Haskell embedded domain specific language. In spite of the theoretical clean separation in SRV between temporal dependencies and data computations, previous engines include ad-hoc implementations of a few data types, requiring complex changes to incorporate new data theories. We propose here an SRV language called hLola that borrows general Haskell types and embeds them transparently into an eDSL. This novel technique, which we call lift deep embedding, allows for example, the use of higher-order functions for static stream parameterization. We describe the Haskell implementation of hLola and illustrate simple extensions implemented using libraries, which require long and error-prone additions in other ad-hoc SRV formalisms.
Synchronisation classes are an important building block for shared memory concurrent programs. Thus to reason about such programs, it is important to be able to verify the implementation of these synchronisation classes, considering atomic operations as the synchronisation primitives on which the implementations are built. For synchronisation classes controlling exclusive access to a shared resource, such as locks, a technique has been proposed to reason about their behaviour. This paper proposes a technique to verify implementations of both exclusive access and shared-reading synchronisers. We use permission-based Separation Logic to describe the behaviour of the main atomic operations, and the basis for our technique is formed by a specification for class AtomicInteger, which is commonly used to implement synchronisation classes in java.util.concurrent. To demonstrate the applicability of our approach, we mechanically verify the implementation of various synchronisation classes like Semaphore, CountDownLatch and Lock.
Pull requests are a key part of the collaborative software development and code review process today. However, pull requests can also slow down the software development process when the reviewer(s) or the author do not actively engage with the pull request. In this work, we design an end-to-end service, Nudge, for accelerating overdue pull requests towards completion by reminding the author or the reviewer(s) to engage with their overdue pull requests. First, we use models based on effort estimation and machine learning to predict the completion time for a given pull request. Second, we use activity detection to reduce false positives. Lastly, we use dependency determination to understand the blocker of the pull request and nudge the appropriate actor(author or reviewer(s)). We also do a correlation analysis to understand the statistical relationship between the pull request completion times and various pull request and developer related attributes. Nudge has been deployed on 147 repositories at Microsoft since 2019. We do a large scale evaluation based on the implicit and explicit feedback we received from sending the Nudge notifications on 8,500 pull requests. We observe significant reduction in completion time, by over 60%, for pull requests which were nudged thus increasing the efficiency of the code review process and accelerating the pull request progression.