An efficient statistical model checker for nondeterminism and rare events

TitleAn efficient statistical model checker for nondeterminism and rare events
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2020
AuthorsBudde, CE, D'Argenio, PR, Hartmanns, A, Sedwards, S
JournalInt. J. on Software Tools for Technology Transfer
Volume22
Pagination759–780
AbstractStatistical model checking avoids the state space explosion problem in verification and naturally supports complex non-Markovian formalisms. Yet as a simulation-based approach, its runtime becomes excessive in the presence of rare events, and it cannot soundly analyse nondeterministic models. In this article, we present modes: a statistical model checker that combines fully automated importance splitting to estimate the probabilities of rare events with smart lightweight scheduler sampling to approximate optimal schedulers in nondeterministic models. As part of the MODEST TOOLSET, it supports a variety of input formalisms natively and via the JANI exchange format. A modular software architecture allows its various features to be flexibly combined. We highlight its capabilities using experiments across multi-core and distributed setups on three case studies and report on an extensive performance comparison with three current statistical model checkers.
URLhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-020-00563-2
DOI10.1007/s10009-020-00563-2
PDF (Full text):