A Database Approach to Distributed State Space Generation

Blom, Stefan and Lisser, Bert and Pol van de, Jaco and Weber, Michael (2008) A Database Approach to Distributed State Space Generation. Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 198 (1). pp. 17-32. ISSN 1571-0661

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Abstract:	We study distributed state space generation on a cluster of workstations. It is explained why state space partitioning by a global hash function is problematic when states contain variables from unbounded domains, such as lists or other recursive datatypes. Our solution is to introduce a database which maintains a global numbering of state values. We also describe tree-compression, a technique of recursive state folding, and show that it is superior to manipulating plain state vectors. This solution is implemented and linked to the μCRL toolset, where state values are implemented as maximally shared terms (ATerms). However, it is applicable to other models as well, e.g., PROMELA models via the NIPS virtual machine. Our experiments show the trade-offs between keeping the database global, replicated, or local, depending on the available network bandwidth and latency.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 2008 Elsevier
Faculty:	Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS)
Research Group:	Formal Methods and Tools (FMT)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/62247
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.entcs.2007.10.018
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