Abstract
This paper reports the analysis of an industrial implementation of the session-layer of a load-balancing software system. This software comprises 7.5 thousand lines of C code. It is used for distribution of the print jobs among several document processors (workers). A large part of this commercially used software system has been modeled closely and analyzed using process-algebraic techniques. Several critical issues were discovered. Since the model was close to the code, all problems that were found in the model, could be traced back to the actual code resulting in concrete suggestions for improvement of the code. All in all, the analysis significantly improved the quality of this real-life system.
This research was supported by SenterNovem Innovation Voucher Inv053967. The fourth author has also been supported by NWO Hefboom project 641.000.407.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Groote, J.F., Mathijssen, A.H.J., Reniers, M.A., Usenko, Y.S., van Weerdenburg, M.J.: The formal specification language mCRL2. In: Proc. Methods for Modelling Software Systems. Number 06351 in Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (2007)
Holzmann, G.J.: Software model checking with spin. Advances in Computers 65, 78–109 (2005)
Bergstra, J.A., Ponse, A., Smolka, S.A. (eds.): Handbook of Process Algebra. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2001)
Palmskog, K.: Verification of the session management protocol. Master’s thesis, School of Computer Science and Communication, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (2006)
He, Y.-T., Janicki, R.: Verifying protocols by model checking: A case study of the wireless application protocol and the model checker spin. In: CASCON 2004: Proceedings of the 2004 conference of the Centre for Advanced Studies on Collaborative research, pp. 174–188. IBM Press (2004)
Mathijssen, A., Pretorius, A.J.: Verified design of an automated parking garage. In: Brim, L., Haverkort, B.R., Leucker, M., van de Pol, J. (eds.) FMICS 2006. LNCS, vol. 4346, pp. 165–180. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Brock, N.A., Jackson, D.M.: Formal verification of a fault tolerant computer. In: Proc. 11th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (IEEE/AIAA), pp. 132–137 (1992)
Hessel, A., Pettersson, P.: Model-based testing of a wap gateway: An industrial case-study. In: Brim, L., Haverkort, B.R., Leucker, M., van de Pol, J. (eds.) FMICS 2006 and PDMC 2006. LNCS, vol. 4346, pp. 116–131. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Chandra, S., Godefroid, P., Palm, C.: Software model checking in practice: an industrial case study. In: ICSE, pp. 431–441. ACM, New York (2002)
Fernandez, J.C., Garavel, H., Kerbrat, R.M.A., Mounier, L., Sighireanu, M.: CADP: A protocol validation and verification toolbox. In: Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Computer-Aided Verification, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, pp. 437–440 (August 1996)
del Mar Gallardo, M., Merino, P., SanĂ¡n, D.: Towards model checking c code with open/cæsar. In: Barjis, J., Ultes-Nitsche, U., Augusto, J.C. (eds.) MSVVEIS, pp. 198–201. INSTICC Press (2006)
Chen, H., Dean, D., Wagner, D.: Model checking one million lines of c code. In: NDSS, The Internet Society (2004)
Visser, W., Mehlitz, P.C.: Model checking programs with java pathfinder. In: Godefroid, P. (ed.) SPIN 2005. LNCS, vol. 3639, p. 27. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Iosif, R., Dwyer, M.B., Hatcliff, J.: Translating java for multiple model checkers: The bandera back-end. Formal Methods in System Design 26(2), 137–180 (2005)
Ball, T., Bounimova, E., Cook, B., Levin, V., Lichtenberg, J., McGarvey, C., Ondrusek, B., Rajamani, S.K., Ustuner, A.: Thorough static analysis of device drivers. In: Berbers, Y., Zwaenepoel, W. (eds.) EuroSys, pp. 73–85. ACM, New York (2006)
Holzmann, G.J., Smith, M.H.: Automating software feature verification. Bell Labs Technical Journal 5(2), 72–87 (2000)
van Eekelen, M., ten Hoedt, S., Schreurs, R., Usenko, Y.S.: Modeling and verifying a real-life industrial session-layer protocol in mCRL2. Technical Report ICIS-R07014, Radboud University Nijmegen (June 2007)
Groote, J.F., Ponse, A.: The syntax and semantics of μCRL. In: Ponse, A., Verhoef, C., van Vlijmen, S.F.M. (eds.) Algebra of Communicating Processes 1994. Workshop in Computing, pp. 26–62. Springer, Heidelberg (1995)
Usenko, Y.S.: Linearization in μCRL. PhD thesis, Eindhoven University of Technology (December 2002)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
van Eekelen, M., ten Hoedt, S., Schreurs, R., Usenko, Y.S. (2008). Analysis of a Session-Layer Protocol in mCRL2. In: Leue, S., Merino, P. (eds) Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems. FMICS 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4916. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79707-4_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-79707-4_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-79706-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-79707-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)