English

A Polyhedral Abstraction for Petri nets and its Application to SMT-Based Model Checking

Logic in Computer Science 2023-06-22 v5

Abstract

We define a new method for taking advantage of net reductions in combination with a SMT-based model checker. Our approach consists in transforming a reachability problem about some Petri net, into the verification of an updated reachability property on a reduced version of this net. This method relies on a new state space abstraction based on systems of constraints, called polyhedral abstraction. We prove the correctness of this method using a new notion of equivalence between nets. We provide a complete framework to define and check the correctness of equivalence judgements; prove that this relation is a congruence; and give examples of basic equivalence relations that derive from structural reductions. Our approach has been implemented in a tool, named SMPT, that provides two main procedures: Bounded Model Checking (BMC) and Property Directed Reachability (PDR). Each procedure has been adapted in order to use reductions and to work with arbitrary Petri nets. We tested SMPT on a large collection of queries used in the Model Checking Contest. Our experimental results show that our approach works well, even when we only have a moderate amount of reductions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2104.09850,
  title  = {A Polyhedral Abstraction for Petri nets and its Application to SMT-Based Model Checking},
  author = {Nicolas Amat and Bernard Berthomieu and Silvano Dal Zilio},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.09850},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T01:21:43.410Z