Mark Bezdany

Abstract

Historically, the consequences of implementing faulty designs of concurrent/ distributed systems have been well known. There have many documented occasions where the little-known and unaccounted-for situations have caused the loss of human life and limb. This problem can be generalized, nowadays, to systems termed as mission critical. This term has arisen because individuals, businesses, and governments have come to depend on their correct operation. Failures in these systems can have such an adverse impact, that they are simply unacceptable. Although, due to the inherent complexity of these systems, preventing such failures can prove to be a very difficult task. PROMELA/SPIN is a validation environment that was developed to address the issue of correctness in concurrent systems by means of formal verification. PROMELA is a specification language used to model the systems to be analyzed, while SPIN is a model-checking tool used to perform the analysis. The modeling language, PROMELA, was specifically designed and intended for specifying communications protocols. The tool, SPIN, has the ability to perform both simulations and verifications of a given PRO MELA model. It also can perform a bit-state space analysis for maximum coverage of large systems that would otherwise be unable to be exhaustively verified. This document is the result of an analysis of PROMELA/SPIN as a practical formal verification method. Formal methods have been slow in their development and acceptance because of both the complexity of the problems that they have tried to solve, and the knowledge of formal methods needed to use them practically. With these points in mind, the analysis will explore the types and sizes of systems that can be verified with PROMELA/SPIN effectively, and just how much knowledge of the tool and formal methods are needed to do so.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Computer network protocols; Computer multitasking; Computer software--Reliability; Computer engineering

Publication Date

5-1-1997

Document Type

Thesis

Department, Program, or Center

Computer Engineering (KGCOE)

Advisor

Lutz, Michael

Advisor/Committee Member

Chang, Tony

Advisor/Committee Member

Czernikowski, Roy

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: TK5105.55 .B49 1997

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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