Course detail
Formal Analysis and Verification
FIT-FAVAcad. year: 2017/2018
Formal analysis and verification as a modern complement and/or alternative to validating properties of systems by means of simulation or testing. Selected formalisms for specifying properties to be checked. Model checking: formal verification based on a systematic state space exploration. Various approaches to state space reductions, especially the partial order reduction. Methods of automated abstraction of systems being examined, especially predicate abstraction. Modern methods of SAT and SMT solving and their aplications in formal analysis and verification. Static analysis based on looking for error patterns, data flow analysis, and abstract interpretation. A brief description of several advanced computer-aided tools for formal analysis and verification: SMV, Spin, Slam, Blast, Java PathFinder, ARMC, FindBugs, etc. (according to the current state of the art).
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Mode of study
Guarantor
Department
Learning outcomes of the course unit
Acquired knowledge about the significance and possibilities of using formal methods within the development of various kinds of systems and about their growing use in practice.
Prerequisites
Co-requisites
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes
Course curriculum
- Syllabus of lectures:
- The meaning of the terms ``formal analysis and verification''. Capabilities and advantages of methods of formal analysis and verification. Various approaches to formal analysis and verification: model checking, static analysis, and theorem proving.
- State spaces, state space paths, abstractions of states and transitions. Interleaving and true concurrency. Linear and branching time. Safety, liveness, and fairness.
- Temporal logics CTL and CTL*, model checking systems whose properties are specified in CTL or CTL* using explicitly represented state spaces.
- Binary decision diagrams for a compact, symbolic representation of state spaces and their implementation.
- Lattices, fix points, and the Knaster-Tarski theorem as a formal basis for symbolic model checking.
- Symbolic model checking for CTL and CTL*.
- The temporal logic LTL, the correspondence between Büchi automata and LTL formulae, model checking systems whose properties are specified in LTL using Büchi automata.
- The partial order state space reduction. The symmetry state space reduction. An overview of other state space reduction methods. Compositional verification.
- Methods of automated abstraction of systems, the predicate abstraction, the counter-example guided abstraction refinement loop, Craig interpolation.
- Decision procedures and modern methods of SAT and SMT solving and their use in formal verification (e.g., in the predicate abstraction).
- Classical dataflow analyses (such as live variables, available expressions, etc.) as well as some selected, more advanced dataflow analyses (like some pointer analyses), their description via flow equations, and iterative methods of solving these methods.
- Abstract interpretation and its use for defining static analyses.
- Static analyses based on searching for bug patterns, a note on selected dynamic analyses, esp. those for detecting concurrency-related errors.
- A project including an installation of a selected tool for automated verification on a formal basis (Spin, Blast, ARMC, SMV, JPF, FindBugs, Invader, Uppaal aj.), experiments with this tool, and a preparation of an essay describing principles on which the chosen tool is built (10 pts.) and the performed experiments (10 pts. for experiments with existing case studies, 10 pts. for new case studies). It is possible to agree on studying a tool based on principles that are not a part of the lectures (theorem proving, real-time systems, etc.).
Syllabus - others, projects and individual work of students:
Work placements
Aims
Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences
- An evaluated project for 30 points.
- A final examination for 70 points.
- To be allowed to sit for the written examination, a student is to earn at least 15 points during the semester.
Recommended optional programme components
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Recommended reading
Classification of course in study plans
- Programme IT-MSC-2 Master's
branch MMI , 0 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch MBI , 0 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch MSK , 2 year of study, winter semester, compulsory-optional
branch MMM , 0 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
branch MBS , 0 year of study, winter semester, compulsory-optional
branch MPV , 0 year of study, winter semester, elective
branch MIS , 0 year of study, winter semester, compulsory-optional
branch MIN , 0 year of study, winter semester, compulsory-optional
branch MGM , 0 year of study, winter semester, elective
Type of course unit
Lecture
Teacher / Lecturer
Syllabus
- The meaning of the terms ``formal analysis and verification''. Capabilities and advantages of methods of formal analysis and verification. Various approaches to formal analysis and verification: model checking, static analysis, and theorem proving.
- State spaces, state space paths, abstractions of states and transitions. Interleaving and true concurrency. Linear and branching time. Safety, liveness, and fairness.
- Temporal logics CTL and CTL*, model checking systems whose properties are specified in CTL or CTL* using explicitly represented state spaces.
- Binary decision diagrams for a compact, symbolic representation of state spaces and their implementation.
- Lattices, fix points, and the Knaster-Tarski theorem as a formal basis for symbolic model checking.
- Symbolic model checking for CTL and CTL*.
- The temporal logic LTL, the correspondence between Büchi automata and LTL formulae, model checking systems whose properties are specified in LTL using Büchi automata.
- The partial order state space reduction. The symmetry state space reduction. An overview of other state space reduction methods. Compositional verification.
- Methods of automated abstraction of systems, the predicate abstraction, the counter-example guided abstraction refinement loop, Craig interpolation.
- Decision procedures and modern methods of SAT and SMT solving and their use in formal verification (e.g., in the predicate abstraction).
- Classical dataflow analyses (such as live variables, available expressions, etc.) as well as some selected, more advanced dataflow analyses (like some pointer analyses), their description via flow equations, and iterative methods of solving these methods.
- Abstract interpretation and its use for defining static analyses.
- Static analyses based on searching for bug patterns, a note on selected dynamic analyses, esp. those for detecting concurrency-related errors.