53757025
The Compositional Far Side of Image Computation
6254649
Disjunctive Image Computation for Embedded Software Verification
Finite state models generated from software programs have unique characteristics that are not exploited by existing model checking algorithms. In this paper, we propose a novel disjunctive image computation algorithm and other simplifications based on these characteristics. Our algorithm divides an image computation into a disjunctive set of easier ones that can be performed in isolation. Hypergraph partitioning is used to minimize the number of live variables in each disjunctive component. We use the live variables to simplify transition relations and reachable state subsets. Our experiments on a set of real-world C programs show that the new algorithm achieves orders-of-magnitude performance improvement over the best known conjunctive image computation algorithm
2143066
Fine-grain abstraction and sequential do not cares for large scale model checking
Abstraction refinement is a key technique for applying model checking to the verification of real-world digital systems. In previous work, the abstraction granularity is often limited at the state variable level, which is too coarse for verifying industrial-scale designs. In this paper, we propose a finer grain abstraction in which intermediate variables are selectively inserted to partition large combinational logic cones into smaller pieces; these intermediate variables, together with the state variables, are then treated as "atoms" in abstraction refinement. With this fine-grain approach, refinement is conducted in two different directions, sequential and Boolean. We propose a SAT-based method for predicting the appropriate refinement direction, and apply greedy minimization in both directions to keep the refinement set small. We also explore the use of approximate reachable states of the remaining submodules to help verifying the abstract model. Experimental studies show that the proposed techniques significantly improve the performance of abstraction refinement, and therefore increase the model checker's ability to handle large designs.
17451344
Compositional SCC Analysis for Language Emptiness
We propose a refinement approach to language emptiness, which is based on the enumeration and the successive refinements of SCCs on over-approximations of the exact system. Our algorithm is compositional: It performs as much computation as possible on the abstract systems, and prunes uninteresting part of the search space as early as possible. It decomposes the state space disjunctively so that each state subset can be checked in isolation to decide language emptiness for the given system. We prove that the strength of an SCC or a set of SCCs decreases monotonically with composition. This allows us to deploy the proper model checking algorithms according to the strength of the SCC at hand. We also propose to use the approximate distance of a fair cycle from the initial states to guide the search. Experimental studies on a set of LTL model checking problems prove the effectiveness of our method.
2969808
Improving Ariadne's Bundle by Following Multiple Threads in Abstraction Refinement
The authors propose a scalable abstraction-refinement method for model checking invariant properties on large sequential circuits, which is based on fine-grain abstraction and simultaneous analysis of all abstract counterexamples of the shortest length. Abstraction efficiency is introduced to measure for a given abstraction-refinement algorithm how much of the concrete model is required to make the decision. The fully automatic techniques presented in this paper can efficiently reach or come near to the maximal abstraction efficiency. First, a fine-grain abstraction approach is given to keep the abstraction granularity small by breaking down large combinational logic cones with Boolean network variables (BNVs) and then treating both state variables and BNVs as atoms in abstraction. Second, a refinement algorithm is proposed based on an improved Ariadne's bundle In the legend of Theseus, Ariadne's bundle contained one ball of thread to help Theseus navigate the labyrinth. In this paper, we work with multiple threads-hence, the "improved." of synchronous onion rings on the abstract model, through which the transitions contain all shortest abstract counterexamples. The synchronous onion rings are exploited in two distinct ways to provide global guidance to the abstraction refinement process. The scalability of our algorithm is ensured in the sense that all the analysis and computation required in our refinement algorithm are conducted on the abstract model. Finally, we derive sequential don't cares from the invisible variables and use them to constrain the behavior of the abstract model. We conducted experimental comparisons of our new method with various existing techniques. The results show that our method outperforms other counterexample-guided methods in terms of both run time and abstraction efficiency
13092959
Whodunit? Causal Analysis for Counterexamples
Although the counterexample returned by a model checker can help in reproducing the symptom related to a defect, a significant amount of effort is often required for the programmer to interpret it in order to locate the cause. In this paper, we provide an automated procedure to zoom in to potential software defects by analyzing a single concrete counterexample. Our analysis relies on extracting from the counterexample a syntactic-level proof of infeasibility, i.e., a minimal set of word-level predicates that contradict with each other. The procedure uses an efficient weakest pre-condition algorithm carried out on a single concrete execution path, which is significantly more scalable than other model checking based approaches. Unlike most of the existing methods, we do not need additional execution traces other than the buggy one. We use public-domain examples to demonstrate the effectiveness of our new algorithm.
18478446
On Parallel Complexity of Planar Triangulations
The greedy triangulation of a finite planar point set is obtained by repeatedly inserting a shortest diagonal that doesn't intersect those already in the plane. We show that the problem of constructing the greedy triangulation of a finite set of points with integer coordinates in the plane is P-complete. This is the first known geometric P-complete problem where the input is given as a set of points. On the other hand, we provide general NC-methods for testing whether a given triangulation of a set of points and/or line segments can be built by inserting the diagonals in a given partial order, and for constructing such triangulations for simple polygons. As corollaries, we obtain NC-algorithms for testing whether a triangulation is respectively the greedy triangulation or the so called sweep-line triangulation, and for constructing respectively the greedy triangulation or the sweep-line triangulation of a simple polygon. The latter result solves the open problem posed by Atallah et al.
13998980
Image annotation refinement using random walk with restarts
Image annotation plays an important role in image retrieval and management. However, the results of the state-of-the-art image annotation methods are often unsatisfactory. Therefore, it is necessary to refine the imprecise annotations obtained by existing annotation methods. In this paper, a novel approach to automatically refine the original annotations of images is proposed. On the one hand, for Web images, textual information, e.g. file name and surrounding text, is used to retrieve a set of candidate annotations. On the other hand, for non-Web images that are lack of textual information, a relevance model-based algorithm using visual information is used to decide the candidate annotations. Then, candidate annotations are re-ranked and only the top ones are reserved as the final annotations. To re-rank the annotations, an algorithm using Random Walk with Restarts (RWR) is proposed to leverage both the corpus information and the original confidence information of the annotations. Experimental results on both non-Web images of Corel dataset and Web images of photo forum sites demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
8882975
Locating Sensors in Concave Areas
In sensor network localization, multihop based approaches were proposed to approximate the shortest paths to Euclidean distances between pairwise sensors. A good approximation can be achieved when sensors are densely deployed in a convex area, where the shortest paths are close to straight lines connecting pairwise sensors. However, in a concave network, the shortest paths may deviate far away from straight lines, which leads to erroneous distance estimation and inaccurate localization results. In this paper, we propose an improved multihop algorithm which can recognize and filter out the erroneous distance estimation, and therefore achieve accurate localization results even in a concave network.
3254735
Optimum design criterion and multilevel coding for radio systems over AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels
For the narrow band Wireless Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, there are some channel coding schemes proposed and applied like Turbo code and convolutional codes. But for the 4G Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wideband systems, we have to use new channel coding schemes with high bandwidth efficiency. In this case, multilevel coding (MLC) scheme is easy to map to Multiple Quardrature Amplitude Modulation (MQAM) modulation strategy to be used for 4G, and MLC+MQAM will be a potential channel coding scheme for the error correcting of next generation of mobile systems. 
 
 
 
A novel criterion, that is ‘capacity rule’ plus ‘mapping rule’, for the design of the optimum MLC scheme for radio systems over Rayleigh fading channels is proposed in this paper. Based on this theory, a few of key issues related to design an optimum MLC system are investigated. These include a novel optimum design criterion proposed, different mapping strategies, different decoding methods of MLC/MSD and MLC/Parallel Decoding on Levels (PDL) and their performance comparison over Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and Rayleigh fading channels respectively. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
1928330
A near-optimal broadcasting algorithm in all-port wormhole-routed hypercubes
For massively parallel computing mechanism, broadcasting is widely used in a variety of applications. When the computation is distributed among the powerful processors, communication overhead always limits the speedup. To reduce the influence of communication latency, a variety of routing methods have been discussed. In this paper, we propose an efficient routing method of broadcasting on all-port worrnhole-routed hybercubes. By exploiting the distance-insensitivity of wormhole switching, this efficient broadcasting algorithm reduce communication latency to l_rzl_logz(n+l )11steps in an n-dimensional hypercube, which is much better than previous results and very close to the theoretical optimum, [rz/log2(n+l )1.Further, by adopting the Hamming code, a well-known algebraic approach in coding theory, this proposed algorithm is contention-free in each broadcasting step.