Abstract
Well-structured systems, aka WSTS, are computational models where the set of possible configurations is equipped with a well-quasi-ordering which is compatible with the transition relation between configurations. This structure supports generic decidability results that are important in verification and several other fields.
This paper recalls the basic theory underlying well-structured systems and shows how two classic decision algorithms can be formulated as an exhaustive search for some “bad” sequences. This lets us describe new powerful techniques for the complexity analysis of WSTS algorithms. Recently, these techniques have been successful in precisely characterizing the power, in a complexity-theoretical sense, of several important WSTS models like unreliable channel systems, monotonic counter machines, or networks of timed systems.
Work supported by the ReacHard project, ANR grant 11-BS02-001-01.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abdulla, P.A.: Well (and better) quasi-ordered transition systems. Bull. Symbolic Logic 16(4), 457–515 (2010)
Abdulla, P.A., Čerāns, K., Jonsson, B., Tsay, Y.K.: Algorithmic analysis of programs with well quasi-ordered domains. Inform. and Comput. 160(1/2), 109–127 (2000)
Abdulla, P.A., Delzanno, G., Van Begin, L.: A classification of the expressive power of well-structured transition systems. Inform. and Comput. 209(3), 248–279 (2011)
Abdulla, P.A., Jonsson, B.: Verifying programs with unreliable channels. Inform. and Comput. 127(2), 91–101 (1996)
Abriola, S., Figueira, S., Senno, G.: Linearizing bad sequences: upper bounds for the product and majoring well quasi-orders. In: Ong, L., de Queiroz, R. (eds.) WoLLIC 2012. LNCS, vol. 7456, pp. 110–126. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)
Atig, M.F., Bouajjani, A., Burckhardt, S., Musuvathi, M.: On the verification problem for weak memory models. In: POPL 2010, pp. 7–18. ACM (2010)
Barceló, P., Figueira, D., Libkin, L.: Graph logics with rational relations and the generalized intersection problem. In: LICS 2012, pp. 115–124. IEEE Press (2012)
Bertrand, N., Schnoebelen, P.: Computable fixpoints in well-structured symbolic model checking. Form. Methods in Syst. Des. (to appear, 2013)
Bozzelli, L., Ganty, P.: Complexity analysis of the backward coverability algorithm for VASS. In: Delzanno, G., Potapov, I. (eds.) RP 2011. LNCS, vol. 6945, pp. 96–109. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)
Bresolin, D., Della Monica, D., Montanari, A., Sala, P., Sciavicco, G.: Interval temporal logics over finite linear orders: The complete picture. In: ECAI 2012. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, vol. 242, pp. 199–204. IOS (2012)
Cardoza, E., Lipton, R., Meyer, A.R.: Exponential space complete problems for Petri nets and commutative subgroups. In: STOC 1976, pp. 50–54. ACM (1976)
Chambart, P., Schnoebelen, P.: Post embedding problem is not primitive recursive, with applications to channel systems. In: Arvind, V., Prasad, S. (eds.) FSTTCS 2007. LNCS, vol. 4855, pp. 265–276. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Chambart, P., Schnoebelen, P.: The ordinal recursive complexity of lossy channel systems. In: LICS 2008, pp. 205–216. IEEE Press (2008)
Cichoń, E.A., Tahhan Bittar, E.: Ordinal recursive bounds for Higman’s Theorem. Theor. Comput. Sci. 201(1-2), 63–84 (1998)
Clote, P.: On the finite containment problem for Petri nets. Theor. Comput. Sci. 43, 99–105 (1986)
Emerson, E.A., Namjoshi, K.S.: On model checking for non-deterministic infinite-state systems. In: LICS 1998, pp. 70–80. IEEE Press (1998)
Esparza, J., Finkel, A., Mayr, R.: On the verification of broadcast protocols. In: LICS 1999, pp. 352–359. IEEE Press (1999)
Esparza, J., Ganty, P., Majumdar, R.: Parameterized verification of asynchronous shared-memory systems. In: Sharygina, N., Veith, H. (eds.) CAV 2013. LNCS, vol. 8044, pp. 124–140. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)
Figueira, D.: Alternating register automata on finite words and trees. Logic. Meth. in Comput. Sci. 8(1), 22 (2012)
Figueira, D., Figueira, S., Schmitz, S., Schnoebelen, P.: Ackermannian and primitive-recursive bounds with Dickson’s Lemma. In: LICS 2011, pp. 269–278. IEEE Press (2011)
Finkel, A.: A generalization of the procedure of Karp and Miller to well structured transition systems. In: Ottmann, T. (ed.) ICALP 1987. LNCS, vol. 267, pp. 499–508. Springer, Heidelberg (1987)
Finkel, A.: Decidability of the termination problem for completely specificied protocols. Distributed Computing 7(3), 129–135 (1994)
Finkel, A., Goubault-Larrecq, J.: Forward analysis for WSTS, part II: Complete WSTS. Logic. Meth. in Comput. Sci. 8(4:28) (2012)
Finkel, A., Schnoebelen, P.: Well-structured transition systems everywhere! Theor. Comput. Sci. 256(1-2), 63–92 (2001)
Goubault-Larrecq, J.: On a generalization of a result by Valk and Jantzen. Research Report LSV-09-09, Laboratoire Spécification et Vérification, ENS Cachan, France (2009)
Schmitz, S., Schnoebelen, P.: The power of well-structured systems. In: D’Argenio, P.R., Melgratti, H. (eds.) CONCUR 2013. LNCS, vol. 8052, pp. 5–24. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)
Haddad, S., Schmitz, S., Schnoebelen, P.: The ordinal-recursive complexity of timed-arc Petri nets, data nets, and other enriched nets. In: LICS 2012, pp. 355–364. IEEE Press (2012)
Jančar, P.: Nonprimitive recursive complexity and undecidability for Petri net equivalences. Theor. Comput. Sci. 256(1-2), 23–30 (2001)
Jurdziński, M., Lazić, R.: Alternating automata on data trees and XPath satisfiability. ACM Trans. Comput. Logic 12(3) (2011)
Kruskal, J.B.: The theory of well-quasi-ordering: A frequently discovered concept. J. Comb. Theory A 13(3), 297–305 (1972)
Kurucz, A.: Combining modal logics. In: Handbook of Modal Logics, ch. 15, pp. 869–926. Elsevier Science (2006)
Lasota, S., Walukiewicz, I.: Alternating timed automata. ACM Trans. Comput. Logic 9(2), 10 (2008)
Lazić, R., Ouaknine, J., Worrell, J.: Zeno, Hercules and the Hydra: Downward rational termination is Ackermannian. In: MFCS 2013. LNCS. Springer (to appear, 2013)
Löb, M., Wainer, S.: Hierarchies of number theoretic functions. I. Arch. Math. Logic 13, 39–51 (1970)
Mayr, E.W., Meyer, A.R.: The complexity of the finite containment problem for Petri nets. J. ACM 28(3), 561–576 (1981)
McAloon, K.: Petri nets and large finite sets. Theor. Comput. Sci. 32(1-2), 173–183 (1984)
Milner, R.: Operational and algebraic semantics of concurrent processes. In: Handbook of Theoretical Computer Science, ch. 19, pp. 1201–1242. Elsevier Science (1990)
Ouaknine, J., Worrell, J.: On the decidability and complexity of Metric Temporal Logic over finite words. Logic. Meth. in Comput. Sci. 3(1), 8 (2007)
Rackoff, C.: The covering and boundedness problems for vector addition systems. Theor. Comput. Sci. 6(2), 223–231 (1978)
Schmitz, S., Schnoebelen, P.: Multiply-recursive upper bounds with Higman’s Lemma. In: Aceto, L., Henzinger, M., Sgall, J. (eds.) ICALP 2011, Part II. LNCS, vol. 6756, pp. 441–452. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)
Schmitz, S., Schnoebelen, P.: Algorithmic aspects of wqo theory. Lecture notes (2012), http://cel.archives-ouvertes.fr/cel-00727025
Schnoebelen, P.: Revisiting Ackermann-hardness for lossy counter machines and reset Petri nets. In: Hliněný, P., Kučera, A. (eds.) MFCS 2010. LNCS, vol. 6281, pp. 616–628. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Schwichtenberg, H., Wainer, S.S.: Proofs and Computation. Perspectives in Logic. Cambridge University Press (2012)
Urquhart, A.: The complexity of decision procedures in relevance logic II. J. Symb. Log. 64(4), 1774–1802 (1999)
Weiermann, A.: Complexity bounds for some finite forms of Kruskal’s Theorem. J. Symb. Comput. 18(5), 463–488 (1994)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Schmitz, S., Schnoebelen, P. (2013). The Power of Well-Structured Systems. In: D’Argenio, P.R., Melgratti, H. (eds) CONCUR 2013 – Concurrency Theory. CONCUR 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8052. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40184-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40184-8_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40183-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40184-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)