Abstract
The verification and analysis of distributed systems is a task of utmost importance, especially in today’s world where many critical services are completely supported by different computer systems. Among the solutions for system modelling and verification, it is particularly useful to combine the usage of different analysis techniques. This also allows the application of the best formalism or technique to different components of a system. The combination of Colored Petri Nets (CPNs) and Automata Theory has proved to be a successful formal technique in the modelling and verification of different distributed systems. In this context, this paper presents Prosega/CPN ( Protocol Sequence Generator and Analyzer ), an extension of CPN Tools for supporting automata-based analysis and verification. The tool implements several operations such as the generation of a minimized deterministic finite-state automaton (FSA) from a CPN’s occurrence graph, language generation, and FSA comparison. The solution is supported by the Simulator Extensions feature whose development has been driven by the need of integrating CPN with other formal methods. Prosega/CPN is intended to support a formal verification methodology of communication protocols; however, it may be used in the verification of other systems whose analysis involves the comparison of models at different levels of abstraction. For example, business strategy and business processes. An insightful use case is provided where Prosega/CPN has been used to analyze part of the IEEE 802.16 MAC connection management service specification.
Highlights
The verification of distributed systems and the assurance of their correctness is a task of utmost importance; specially in today’s world where many critical services are completely supported by computer technologies
Prosega/Coloured Petri Nets (CPNs) has been integrated within the CPN Tools Graphical User Interface (GUI) using the Simulation Extensions component whose development has been driven by the demand of many research works to suitably integrate Colored Petri Nets with other formalisms [4]
The integration between CPNs and Finite-state Automata (FSA) was not existing within CPN Tools, and the application of this multi-formalism strategy has shown its merits in many published papers, specially from the domain of protocol verification
Summary
The verification of distributed systems and the assurance of their correctness is a task of utmost importance; specially in today’s world where many critical services are completely supported by computer technologies. In the context of Colored Petri Nets, the last version of CPN Tools includes the Simulator Extensions whose development has been driven by the need of integrating CPN with other formal methods [4]. We consider the integration of CPNs and Finite-state Automata (FSA) which has been proved to be useful for the validation of different protocols and communication systems [5] [6] [7]. The tool may be useful to support the verification of other systems whose strategy may involve the usage of FSAs, or the comparison of models at different levels of abstraction; for example, business strategy and business processes.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
