Hiding Backtracking Operations in Software Model Checking from the Environment

Most non-trivial applications use some form of input/output (I/O), such as network communication. When model checking such an application, a simple state space exploration scheme is not applicable: Backtracking during the state space search causes states to be revisited, and I/O operations to be repeated. Because I/O operations are visible by the environment, software model checking needs to encapsulate such operations in a caching layer that hides such actions. In order to mediate between the model checker and the environment, the cache layer has to pair request and response messages correctly. It also has to distinguish between complete and partial messages. Finally, operations that open or close communication channels require special treatment as well. —