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[NPPW09] Gethin Norman, Catuscia Palamidessi, David Parker and Peng Wu. Model Checking Probabilistic and Stochastic Extensions of the Pi-Calculus. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 35(2), pages 209-223, IEEE Computer Society. March 2009. [pdf] [bib] [Presents model checking techniques for the probabilistic/stochastic pi-calculus based on a translation to PRISM.]
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Abstract. We present an implementation of model checking for probabilistic and stochastic extensions of the pi-calculus, a process algebra which supports modelling of concurrency and mobility. Formal verification techniques for such extensions have clear applications in several domains, including mobile ad-hoc network protocols, probabilistic security protocols and biological pathways. Despite this, no implementation of automated verification exists. Building upon the pi-calculus model checker MMC, we first show an automated procedure for constructing the underlying semantic model of a probabilistic or stochastic pi-calculus process. This can then be verified using existing probabilistic model checkers such as PRISM. Secondly, we demonstrate how for processes of a specific structure a more efficient, compositional approach is applicable, which uses our extension of MMC on each parallel component of the system and then translates the results into a high-level modular description for the PRISM tool. The feasibility of our techniques is demonstrated through a number of case studies from the pi-calculus literature.

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