Experiments with distributed Model-Checking of group-based applications

In recent work [3], we have proposed a modelisation of the behaviour of group-based distributed applications, in the form of parameterized networks of synchronised automata (pNets, see [4]). A typical structure in group-based applications is illustrated in Figure 1, where a client sends requests using a synchronous broadcast mechanism (BO) to a number of servers, then collects (CO) the results from these requests in an asynchronous way. The pNets formalism provides us with a powerful and flexible way to encode labelled transition systems with valuepassing, as well as parameterized topologies of processes, and many different communication primitives. But it also has the great advantage that it can be transformed by abstraction into finite pNet models, suitable for finite-state model-checking.