Exact and Approximate Strategies for Symmetry Reduction in Model Checking

Symmetry reduction techniques can help to combat the state space explosion problem for model checking, but are restricted by the hard problem of determining equivalence of states during search. Consequently, existing symmetry reduction packages can only exploit full symmetry between system components, as checking the equivalence of states is straightforward in this special case. We present a framework for symmetry reduction with an arbitrary group of structural symmetries. By generalising existing techniques for efficiently exploiting symmetry, and introducing an approximate strategy for use with groups for which fast, exact strategies are not available, our approach allows for significant state-space reduction with minimal time overhead. We show how computational group theoretic techniques can be used to analyse the structure of a symmetry group so that an appropriate symmetry reduction strategy can be chosen, and we describe a symmetry reduction package for the SPIN model checker whi...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: FM
• Authors: Alastair F. Donaldson, Alice Miller
• Keywords: FM 2006, Formal Methods, Symmetry Reduction, Symmetry Reduction Package, Symmetry Reduction Techniques