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Documents authored by Bertrand, Nathalie

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2022.32
Semilinear Representations for Series-Parallel Atomic Congestion Games

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Nicolas Markey, Suman Sadhukhan, and Ocan Sankur

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 250, 42nd IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2022)

Abstract
We consider atomic congestion games on series-parallel networks, and study the structure of the sets of Nash equilibria and social local optima on a given network when the number of players varies. We establish that these sets are definable in Presburger arithmetic and that they admit semilinear representations whose all period vectors have a common direction. As an application, we prove that the prices of anarchy and stability converge to 1 as the number of players goes to infinity, and show how to exploit these semilinear representations to compute these ratios precisely for a given network and number of players.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Nicolas Markey, Suman Sadhukhan, and Ocan Sankur. Semilinear Representations for Series-Parallel Atomic Congestion Games. In 42nd IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 250, pp. 32:1-32:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2022.32,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Markey, Nicolas and Sadhukhan, Suman and Sankur, Ocan},
  title =	{{Semilinear Representations for Series-Parallel Atomic Congestion Games}},
  booktitle =	{42nd IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2022)},
  pages =	{32:1--32:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-261-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{250},
  editor =	{Dawar, Anuj and Guruswami, Venkatesan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2022.32},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-174243},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2022.32},
  annote =	{Keywords: congestion games, Nash equilibria, Presburger arithmetic, semilinear sets, price of anarchy}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2022.10
Holistic Verification of Blockchain Consensus

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Vincent Gramoli, Igor Konnov, Marijana Lazić, Pierre Tholoniat, and Josef Widder

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 246, 36th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2022)

Abstract
Blockchain has recently attracted the attention of the industry due, in part, to its ability to automate asset transfers. It requires distributed participants to reach a consensus on a block despite the presence of malicious (a.k.a. Byzantine) participants. Malicious participants exploit regularly weaknesses of these blockchain consensus algorithms, with sometimes devastating consequences. In fact, these weaknesses are quite common and are well illustrated by the flaws in various blockchain consensus algorithms [Pierre Tholoniat and Vincent Gramoli, 2019]. Paradoxically, until now, no blockchain consensus has been holistically verified. In this paper, we remedy this paradox by model checking for the first time a blockchain consensus used in industry. We propose a holistic approach to verify the consensus algorithm of the Red Belly Blockchain [Tyler Crain et al., 2021], for any number n of processes and any number f < n/3 of Byzantine processes. We decompose directly the algorithm pseudocode in two parts - an inner broadcast algorithm and an outer decision algorithm - each modelled as a threshold automaton [Igor Konnov et al., 2017], and we formalize their expected properties in linear-time temporal logic. We then automatically check the inner broadcasting algorithm, under a carefully identified fairness assumption. For the verification of the outer algorithm, we simplify the model of the inner algorithm by relying on its proven properties. Doing so, we formally verify, for any parameter, not only the safety properties of the Red Belly Blockchain consensus but also its liveness in less than 70 seconds.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Vincent Gramoli, Igor Konnov, Marijana Lazić, Pierre Tholoniat, and Josef Widder. Holistic Verification of Blockchain Consensus. In 36th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 246, pp. 10:1-10:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.DISC.2022.10,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Gramoli, Vincent and Konnov, Igor and Lazi\'{c}, Marijana and Tholoniat, Pierre and Widder, Josef},
  title =	{{Holistic Verification of Blockchain Consensus}},
  booktitle =	{36th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2022)},
  pages =	{10:1--10:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-255-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{246},
  editor =	{Scheideler, Christian},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2022.10},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-172019},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2022.10},
  annote =	{Keywords: Model checking, automata, logic, byzantine failure}
}
Document
Track B: Automata, Logic, Semantics, and Theory of Programming
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.113
Parameterized Safety Verification of Round-Based Shared-Memory Systems

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Nicolas Markey, Ocan Sankur, and Nicolas Waldburger

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 229, 49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022)

Abstract
We consider the parameterized verification problem for distributed algorithms where the goal is to develop techniques to prove the correctness of a given algorithm regardless of the number of participating processes. Motivated by an asynchronous binary consensus algorithm [James Aspnes, 2002], we consider round-based distributed algorithms communicating with shared memory. A particular challenge in these systems is that 1) the number of processes is unbounded, and, more importantly, 2) there is a fresh set of registers at each round. A verification algorithm thus needs to manage both sources of infinity. In this setting, we prove that the safety verification problem, which consists in deciding whether all possible executions avoid a given error state, is PSPACE-complete. For negative instances of the safety verification problem, we also provide exponential lower and upper bounds on the minimal number of processes needed for an error execution and on the minimal round on which the error state can be covered.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Nicolas Markey, Ocan Sankur, and Nicolas Waldburger. Parameterized Safety Verification of Round-Based Shared-Memory Systems. In 49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 229, pp. 113:1-113:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.113,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Markey, Nicolas and Sankur, Ocan and Waldburger, Nicolas},
  title =	{{Parameterized Safety Verification of Round-Based Shared-Memory Systems}},
  booktitle =	{49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022)},
  pages =	{113:1--113:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-235-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{229},
  editor =	{Boja\'{n}czyk, Miko{\l}aj and Merelli, Emanuela and Woodruff, David P.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.113},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-164541},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.113},
  annote =	{Keywords: Verification, Parameterized models, Distributed algorithms}
}
Document
Invited Talk
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2021.1
Distributed Algorithms: A Challenging Playground for Model Checking (Invited Talk)

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 217, 25th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2021)

Abstract
Distributed computing is increasingly spreading, in advanced technological applications as well as in our daily life. Failures in distributed algorithms can have important human and financial consequences, so that is is crucial to develop rigorous techniques to verify their correctness. Model checking is a model-based approach to formal verification, dating back the 80’s. It has been successfully applied first to hardware, and later to software verification. Distributed computing raises new challenges for the model checking community, and calls for the development of new verification techniques and tools. In particular, the parameterized verification paradigm is nowadays blooming to help proving automatically the correctness of distributed algorithms. In this invited talk, we present recent parameterized verification developments to automatically prove properties of some classical distributed algorithms.
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Nathalie Bertrand. Distributed Algorithms: A Challenging Playground for Model Checking (Invited Talk). In 25th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 217, p. 1:1, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{bertrand:LIPIcs.OPODIS.2021.1,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie},
  title =	{{Distributed Algorithms: A Challenging Playground for Model Checking}},
  booktitle =	{25th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems (OPODIS 2021)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:1},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-219-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{217},
  editor =	{Bramas, Quentin and Gramoli, Vincent and Milani, Alessia},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2021.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-157767},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.OPODIS.2021.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Verification, Distributed algorithms}
}
Document
Invited Paper
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.1
CONCUR Test-Of-Time Award 2021 (Invited Paper)

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Luca de Alfaro, Rob van Glabbeek, Catuscia Palamidessi, and Nobuko Yoshida

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 203, 32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2021)

Abstract
This short article announces the recipients of the CONCUR Test-of-Time Award 2021.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Luca de Alfaro, Rob van Glabbeek, Catuscia Palamidessi, and Nobuko Yoshida. CONCUR Test-Of-Time Award 2021 (Invited Paper). In 32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 203, pp. 1:1-1:3, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.1,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and de Alfaro, Luca and van Glabbeek, Rob and Palamidessi, Catuscia and Yoshida, Nobuko},
  title =	{{CONCUR Test-Of-Time Award 2021}},
  booktitle =	{32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2021)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:3},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-203-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{203},
  editor =	{Haddad, Serge and Varacca, Daniele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-143786},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Concurrency, CONCUR Test-of-Time Award}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.7
Quantified Linear Temporal Logic over Probabilistic Systems with an Application to Vacuity Checking

Authors: Jakob Piribauer, Christel Baier, Nathalie Bertrand, and Ocan Sankur

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 203, 32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2021)

Abstract
Quantified linear temporal logic (QLTL) is an ω-regular extension of LTL allowing quantification over propositional variables. We study the model checking problem of QLTL-formulas over Markov chains and Markov decision processes (MDPs) with respect to the number of quantifier alternations of formulas in prenex normal form. For formulas with k{-}1 quantifier alternations, we prove that all qualitative and quantitative model checking problems are k-EXPSPACE-complete over Markov chains and k{+}1-EXPTIME-complete over MDPs. As an application of these results, we generalize vacuity checking for LTL specifications from the non-probabilistic to the probabilistic setting. We show how to check whether an LTL-formula is affected by a subformula, and also study inherent vacuity for probabilistic systems.
Cite as

Jakob Piribauer, Christel Baier, Nathalie Bertrand, and Ocan Sankur. Quantified Linear Temporal Logic over Probabilistic Systems with an Application to Vacuity Checking. In 32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 203, pp. 7:1-7:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{piribauer_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.7,
  author =	{Piribauer, Jakob and Baier, Christel and Bertrand, Nathalie and Sankur, Ocan},
  title =	{{Quantified Linear Temporal Logic over Probabilistic Systems with an Application to Vacuity Checking}},
  booktitle =	{32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2021)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-203-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{203},
  editor =	{Haddad, Serge and Varacca, Daniele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-143842},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: Quantified linear temporal logic, Markov chain, Markov decision process, vacuity}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.15
Guard Automata for the Verification of Safety and Liveness of Distributed Algorithms

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Bastien Thomas, and Josef Widder

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 203, 32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2021)

Abstract
Distributed algorithms typically run over arbitrary many processes and may involve unboundedly many rounds, making the automated verification of their correctness challenging. Building on domain theory, we introduce a framework that abstracts infinite-state distributed systems that represent distributed algorithms into finite-state guard automata. The soundness of the approach corresponds to the Scott-continuity of the abstraction, which relies on the assumption that the distributed algorithms are layered. Guard automata thus enable the verification of safety and liveness properties of distributed algorithms.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Bastien Thomas, and Josef Widder. Guard Automata for the Verification of Safety and Liveness of Distributed Algorithms. In 32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 203, pp. 15:1-15:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.15,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Thomas, Bastien and Widder, Josef},
  title =	{{Guard Automata for the Verification of Safety and Liveness of Distributed Algorithms}},
  booktitle =	{32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2021)},
  pages =	{15:1--15:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-203-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{203},
  editor =	{Haddad, Serge and Varacca, Daniele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.15},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-143926},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2021.15},
  annote =	{Keywords: Verification, Distributed algorithms, Domain theory}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2020.39
Synthesizing Safe Coalition Strategies

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, and Anirban Majumdar

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 182, 40th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2020)

Abstract
Concurrent games with a fixed number of agents have been thoroughly studied, with various solution concepts and objectives for the agents. In this paper, we consider concurrent games with an arbitrary number of agents, and study the problem of synthesizing a coalition strategy to achieve a global safety objective. The problem is non-trivial since the agents do not know a priori how many they are when they start the game. We prove that the existence of a safe arbitrary-large coalition strategy for safety objectives is a PSPACE-hard problem that can be decided in exponential space.
Cite as

Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, and Anirban Majumdar. Synthesizing Safe Coalition Strategies. In 40th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 182, pp. 39:1-39:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2020.39,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Bouyer, Patricia and Majumdar, Anirban},
  title =	{{Synthesizing Safe Coalition Strategies}},
  booktitle =	{40th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2020)},
  pages =	{39:1--39:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-174-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{182},
  editor =	{Saxena, Nitin and Simon, Sunil},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2020.39},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-132807},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2020.39},
  annote =	{Keywords: concurrent games, parameterized verification, strategy synthesis}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2020.40
Dynamic Network Congestion Games

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Nicolas Markey, Suman Sadhukhan, and Ocan Sankur

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 182, 40th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2020)

Abstract
Congestion games are a classical type of games studied in game theory, in which n players choose a resource, and their individual cost increases with the number of other players choosing the same resource. In network congestion games (NCGs), the resources correspond to simple paths in a graph, e.g. representing routing options from a source to a target. In this paper, we introduce a variant of NCGs, referred to as dynamic NCGs: in this setting, players take transitions synchronously, they select their next transitions dynamically, and they are charged a cost that depends on the number of players simultaneously using the same transition. We study, from a complexity perspective, standard concepts of game theory in dynamic NCGs: social optima, Nash equilibria, and subgame perfect equilibria. Our contributions are the following: the existence of a strategy profile with social cost bounded by a constant is in PSPACE and NP-hard. (Pure) Nash equilibria always exist in dynamic NCGs; the existence of a Nash equilibrium with bounded cost can be decided in EXPSPACE, and computing a witnessing strategy profile can be done in doubly-exponential time. The existence of a subgame perfect equilibrium with bounded cost can be decided in 2EXPSPACE, and a witnessing strategy profile can be computed in triply-exponential time.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Nicolas Markey, Suman Sadhukhan, and Ocan Sankur. Dynamic Network Congestion Games. In 40th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 182, pp. 40:1-40:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2020.40,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Markey, Nicolas and Sadhukhan, Suman and Sankur, Ocan},
  title =	{{Dynamic Network Congestion Games}},
  booktitle =	{40th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2020)},
  pages =	{40:1--40:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-174-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{182},
  editor =	{Saxena, Nitin and Simon, Sunil},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2020.40},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-132811},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2020.40},
  annote =	{Keywords: Congestion games, Nash equilibria, Subgame perfect equilibria, Complexity}
}
Document
Invited Talk
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2020.1
Concurrent Games with Arbitrarily Many Players (Invited Talk)

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 170, 45th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2020)

Abstract
Traditional concurrent games on graphs involve a fixed number of players, who take decisions simultaneously, determining the next state of the game. With Anirban Majumdar and Patricia Bouyer, we introduced a parameterized variant of concurrent games on graphs, where the parameter is precisely the number of players. Parameterized concurrent games are described by finite graphs, in which the transitions bear finite-word languages to describe the possible move combinations that lead from one vertex to another. We report on results on two problems for such concurrent games with arbitrary many players. To start with, we studied the problem of determining whether the first player, say Eve, has a strategy to ensure a reachability objective against any strategy profile of her opponents as a coalition. In particular Eve’s strategy should be independent of the number of opponents she actually has. We establish the precise complexities of the problem for reachability objectives. Second, we considered a synthesis problem, where one aims at designing a strategy for each of the (arbitrarily many) players so as to achieve a common objective. For safety objectives, we show that this kind of distributed synthesis problem is decidable.
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Nathalie Bertrand. Concurrent Games with Arbitrarily Many Players (Invited Talk). In 45th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 170, pp. 1:1-1:8, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{bertrand:LIPIcs.MFCS.2020.1,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie},
  title =	{{Concurrent Games with Arbitrarily Many Players}},
  booktitle =	{45th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2020)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:8},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-159-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{170},
  editor =	{Esparza, Javier and Kr\'{a}l', Daniel},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2020.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-126724},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2020.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: concurrent games, parameterized verification}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2019.31
Concurrent Parameterized Games

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, and Anirban Majumdar

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 150, 39th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2019)

Abstract
Traditional concurrent games on graphs involve a fixed number of players, who take decisions simultaneously, determining the next state of the game. In this paper, we introduce a parameterized variant of concurrent games on graphs, where the parameter is precisely the number of players. Parameterized concurrent games are described by finite graphs, in which the transitions bear regular languages to describe the possible move combinations that lead from one vertex to another. We consider the problem of determining whether the first player, say Eve, has a strategy to ensure a reachability objective against any strategy profile of her opponents as a coalition. In particular Eve’s strategy should be independent of the number of opponents she actually has. Technically, this paper focuses on an a priori simpler setting where the languages labeling transitions only constrain the number of opponents (but not their precise action choices). These constraints are described as semilinear sets, finite unions of intervals, or intervals. We establish the precise complexities of the parameterized reachability game problem, ranging from PTIME-complete to PSPACE-complete, in a variety of situations depending on the contraints (semilinear predicates, unions of intervals, or intervals) and on the presence or not of non-determinism.
Cite as

Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, and Anirban Majumdar. Concurrent Parameterized Games. In 39th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 150, pp. 31:1-31:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2019)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2019.31,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Bouyer, Patricia and Majumdar, Anirban},
  title =	{{Concurrent Parameterized Games}},
  booktitle =	{39th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2019)},
  pages =	{31:1--31:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-131-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2019},
  volume =	{150},
  editor =	{Chattopadhyay, Arkadev and Gastin, Paul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2019.31},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-115931},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2019.31},
  annote =	{Keywords: concurrent games, parameterized verification}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2019.32
Reconfiguration and Message Losses in Parameterized Broadcast Networks

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, and Anirban Majumdar

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 140, 30th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2019)

Abstract
Broadcast networks allow one to model networks of identical nodes communicating through message broadcasts. Their parameterized verification aims at proving a property holds for any number of nodes, under any communication topology, and on all possible executions. We focus on the coverability problem which dually asks whether there exists an execution that visits a configuration exhibiting some given state of the broadcast protocol. Coverability is known to be undecidable for static networks, i.e. when the number of nodes and communication topology is fixed along executions. In contrast, it is decidable in PTIME when the communication topology may change arbitrarily along executions, that is for reconfigurable networks. Surprisingly, no lower nor upper bounds on the minimal number of nodes, or the minimal length of covering execution in reconfigurable networks, appear in the literature. In this paper we show tight bounds for cutoff and length, which happen to be linear and quadratic, respectively, in the number of states of the protocol. We also introduce an intermediary model with static communication topology and non-deterministic message losses upon sending. We show that the same tight bounds apply to lossy networks, although, reconfigurable executions may be linearly more succinct than lossy executions. Finally, we show NP-completeness for the natural optimisation problem associated with the cutoff.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, and Anirban Majumdar. Reconfiguration and Message Losses in Parameterized Broadcast Networks. In 30th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 140, pp. 32:1-32:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2019)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2019.32,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Bouyer, Patricia and Majumdar, Anirban},
  title =	{{Reconfiguration and Message Losses in Parameterized Broadcast Networks}},
  booktitle =	{30th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2019)},
  pages =	{32:1--32:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-121-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2019},
  volume =	{140},
  editor =	{Fokkink, Wan and van Glabbeek, Rob},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2019.32},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-109345},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2019.32},
  annote =	{Keywords: model checking, parameterized verification, broadcast networks}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2019.33
Verification of Randomized Consensus Algorithms Under Round-Rigid Adversaries

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Igor Konnov, Marijana Lazić, and Josef Widder

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 140, 30th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2019)

Abstract
Randomized fault-tolerant distributed algorithms pose a number of challenges for automated verification: (i) parameterization in the number of processes and faults, (ii) randomized choices and probabilistic properties, and (iii) an unbounded number of asynchronous rounds. This combination makes verification hard. Challenge (i) was recently addressed in the framework of threshold automata. We extend threshold automata to model randomized consensus algorithms that perform an unbounded number of asynchronous rounds. For non-probabilistic properties, we show that it is necessary and sufficient to verify these properties under round-rigid schedules, that is, schedules where processes enter round r only after all processes finished round r-1. For almost-sure termination, we analyze these algorithms under round-rigid adversaries, that is, fair adversaries that only generate round-rigid schedules. This allows us to do compositional and inductive reasoning that reduces verification of the asynchronous multi-round algorithms to model checking of a one-round threshold automaton. We apply this framework and automatically verify the following classic algorithms: Ben-Or’s and Bracha’s seminal consensus algorithms for crashes and Byzantine faults, 2-set agreement for crash faults, and RS-Bosco for the Byzantine case.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Igor Konnov, Marijana Lazić, and Josef Widder. Verification of Randomized Consensus Algorithms Under Round-Rigid Adversaries. In 30th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 140, pp. 33:1-33:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2019)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2019.33,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Konnov, Igor and Lazi\'{c}, Marijana and Widder, Josef},
  title =	{{Verification of Randomized Consensus Algorithms Under Round-Rigid Adversaries}},
  booktitle =	{30th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2019)},
  pages =	{33:1--33:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-121-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2019},
  volume =	{140},
  editor =	{Fokkink, Wan and van Glabbeek, Rob},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2019.33},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-109358},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2019.33},
  annote =	{Keywords: threshold automata, counter systems, parameterized verification, randomized distributed algorithms, Byzantine faults}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2017.12
Controlling a Population

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Miheer Dewaskar, Blaise Genest, and Hugo Gimbert

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 85, 28th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2017)

Abstract
We introduce a new setting where a population of agents, each modelled by a finite-state system, are controlled uniformly: the controller applies the same action to every agent. The framework is largely inspired by the control of a biological system, namely a population of yeasts, where the controller may only change the environment common to all cells. We study a synchronisation problem for such populations: no matter how individual agents react to the actions of the controller, the controller aims at driving all agents synchronously to a target state. The agents are naturally represented by a non-deterministic finite state automaton (NFA), the same for every agent, and the whole system is encoded as a 2-player game. The first player chooses actions, and the second player resolves non-determinism for each agent. The game with m agents is called the m-population game. This gives rise to a parameterized control problem (where control refers to 2 player games), namely the population control problem: can playerone control the m-population game for all m in N whatever playertwo does? In this paper, we prove that the population control problem is decidable, and it is a EXPTIME-complete problem. As far as we know, this is one of the first results on parameterized control. Our algorithm, not based on cut-off techniques, produces winning strategies which are symbolic, that i they do not need to count precisely how the population is spread between states. We also show that if the is no winning strategy, then there is a population size cutoff such that playerone wins the m-population game if and only if m< \cutoff. Surprisingly, \cutoff can be doubly exponential in the number of states of the NFA, with tight upper and lower bounds.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Miheer Dewaskar, Blaise Genest, and Hugo Gimbert. Controlling a Population. In 28th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 85, pp. 12:1-12:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2017.12,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Dewaskar, Miheer and Genest, Blaise and Gimbert, Hugo},
  title =	{{Controlling a Population}},
  booktitle =	{28th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2017)},
  pages =	{12:1--12:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-048-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{85},
  editor =	{Meyer, Roland and Nestmann, Uwe},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2017.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-78000},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2017.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: Model-checking, control, parametric systems}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2016.37
Diagnosis in Infinite-State Probabilistic Systems

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Serge Haddad, and Engel Lefaucheux

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 59, 27th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2016)

Abstract
In a recent work, we introduced four variants of diagnosability (FA, IA, FF, IF) in (finite) probabilistic systems (pLTS) depending whether one considers (1) finite or infinite runs and (2) faulty or all runs. We studied their relationship and established that the corresponding decision problems are PSPACE-complete. A key ingredient of the decision procedures was a characterisation of diagnosability by the fact that a random run almost surely lies in an open set whose specification only depends on the qualitative behaviour of the pLTS. Here we investigate similar issues for infinite pLTS. We first show that this characterisation still holds for FF-diagnosability but with a G-delta set instead of an open set and also for IF- and IA-diagnosability when pLTS are finitely branching. We also prove that surprisingly FA-diagnosability cannot be characterised in this way even in the finitely branching case. Then we apply our characterisations for a partially observable probabilistic extension of visibly pushdown automata (POpVPA), yielding EXPSPACE procedures for solving diagnosability problems. In addition, we establish some computational lower bounds and show that slight extensions of POpVPA lead to undecidability.
Cite as

Nathalie Bertrand, Serge Haddad, and Engel Lefaucheux. Diagnosis in Infinite-State Probabilistic Systems. In 27th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2016). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 59, pp. 37:1-37:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2016)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2016.37,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Haddad, Serge and Lefaucheux, Engel},
  title =	{{Diagnosis in Infinite-State Probabilistic Systems}},
  booktitle =	{27th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2016)},
  pages =	{37:1--37:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-017-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2016},
  volume =	{59},
  editor =	{Desharnais, Jos\'{e}e and Jagadeesan, Radha},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2016.37},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-61597},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2016.37},
  annote =	{Keywords: probabilistic systems, infinite-state systems, pushdown automata, diagnosis, partial observation}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2016.101
Analysing Decisive Stochastic Processes

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, Thomas Brihaye, and Pierre Carlier

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 55, 43rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2016)

Abstract
In 2007, Abdulla et al. introduced the elegant concept of decisive Markov chain. Intuitively, decisiveness allows one to lift the good properties of finite Markov chains to infinite Markov chains. For instance, the approximate quantitative reachability problem can be solved for decisive Markov chains (enjoying reasonable effectiveness assumptions) including probabilistic lossy channel systems and probabilistic vector addition systems with states. In this paper, we extend the concept of decisiveness to more general stochastic processes. This extension is non trivial as we consider stochastic processes with a potentially continuous set of states and uncountable branching (common features of real-time stochastic processes). This allows us to obtain decidability results for both qualitative and quantitative verification problems on some classes of real-time stochastic processes, including generalized semi-Markov processes and stochastic timed automata
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Nathalie Bertrand, Patricia Bouyer, Thomas Brihaye, and Pierre Carlier. Analysing Decisive Stochastic Processes. In 43rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2016). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 55, pp. 101:1-101:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2016)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2016.101,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Bouyer, Patricia and Brihaye, Thomas and Carlier, Pierre},
  title =	{{Analysing Decisive Stochastic Processes}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2016)},
  pages =	{101:1--101:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-013-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2016},
  volume =	{55},
  editor =	{Chatzigiannakis, Ioannis and Mitzenmacher, Michael and Rabani, Yuval and Sangiorgi, Davide},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2016.101},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-62362},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2016.101},
  annote =	{Keywords: Real-time stochastic processes, Decisiveness, Approximation Scheme}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2015.44
Distributed Local Strategies in Broadcast Networks

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Paulin Fournier, and Arnaud Sangnier

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 42, 26th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2015)

Abstract
We study the problems of reaching a specific control state, or converging to a set of target states, in networks with a parameterized number of identical processes communicating via broadcast. To reflect the distributed aspect of such networks, we restrict our attention to executions in which all the processes must follow the same local strategy that, given their past performed actions and received messages, provides the next action to be performed. We show that the reachability and target problems under such local strategies are NP-complete, assuming that the set of receivers is chosen non-deterministically at each step. On the other hand, these problems become undecidable when the communication topology is a clique. However, decidability can be regained for reachability under the additional assumption that all processes are bound to receive the broadcast messages.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Paulin Fournier, and Arnaud Sangnier. Distributed Local Strategies in Broadcast Networks. In 26th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2015). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 42, pp. 44-57, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2015)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.CONCUR.2015.44,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Fournier, Paulin and Sangnier, Arnaud},
  title =	{{Distributed Local Strategies in Broadcast Networks}},
  booktitle =	{26th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2015)},
  pages =	{44--57},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-91-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2015},
  volume =	{42},
  editor =	{Aceto, Luca and de Frutos Escrig, David},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2015.44},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-53796},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CONCUR.2015.44},
  annote =	{Keywords: Broadcast networks, parameterized verification, local strategies}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2014.417
Foundation of Diagnosis and Predictability in Probabilistic Systems

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Serge Haddad, and Engel Lefaucheux

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 29, 34th International Conference on Foundation of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2014)

Abstract
In discrete event systems prone to unobservable faults, a diagnoser must eventually detect fault occurrences. The diagnosability problem consists in deciding whether such a diagnoser exists. Here we investigate diagnosis for probabilistic systems modelled by partially observed Markov chains also called probabilistic labeled transition systems (pLTS). First we study different specifications of diagnosability and establish their relations both in finite and infinite pLTS. Then we analyze the complexity of the diagnosability problem for finite pLTS: we show that the polynomial time procedure earlier proposed is erroneous and that in fact for all considered specifications, the problem is PSPACE-complete. We also establish tight bounds for the size of diagnosers. Afterwards we consider the dual notion of predictability which consists in predicting that in a safe run, a fault will eventually occur. Predictability is an easier problem than diagnosability: it is NLOGSPACE-complete. Yet the predictor synthesis is as hard as the diagnoser synthesis. Finally we introduce and study the more flexible notion of prediagnosability that generalizes predictability and diagnosability.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Serge Haddad, and Engel Lefaucheux. Foundation of Diagnosis and Predictability in Probabilistic Systems. In 34th International Conference on Foundation of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2014). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 29, pp. 417-429, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2014)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2014.417,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Haddad, Serge and Lefaucheux, Engel},
  title =	{{Foundation of Diagnosis and Predictability in Probabilistic Systems}},
  booktitle =	{34th International Conference on Foundation of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2014)},
  pages =	{417--429},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-77-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2014},
  volume =	{29},
  editor =	{Raman, Venkatesh and Suresh, S. P.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2014.417},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-48605},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2014.417},
  annote =	{Keywords: Partially observed systems, Diagnosis, Markov chains}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2013.501
Parameterized Verification of Many Identical Probabilistic Timed Processes

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand and Paulin Fournier

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 24, IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2013)

Abstract
Parameterized verification aims at validating a system's model irrespective of the value of a parameter. We introduce a model for networks of identical probabilistic timed processes, where the number of processes is a parameter. Each process is a probabilistic single-clock timed automaton and communicates with the others by broadcasting. The number of processes either is constant (static case), or evolves over time through random disappearances and creations (dynamic case). An example of relevant parameterized verification problem for these systems is whether, independently of the number of processes, a configuration where one process is in a target state is reached almost-surely under all scheduling policies. On the one hand, most parameterized verification problems turn out to be undecidable in the static case (even for untimed processes). On the other hand, we prove their decidability in the dynamic case.
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Nathalie Bertrand and Paulin Fournier. Parameterized Verification of Many Identical Probabilistic Timed Processes. In IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2013). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 24, pp. 501-513, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2013)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2013.501,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Fournier, Paulin},
  title =	{{Parameterized Verification of Many Identical Probabilistic Timed Processes}},
  booktitle =	{IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2013)},
  pages =	{501--513},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-64-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2013},
  volume =	{24},
  editor =	{Seth, Anil and Vishnoi, Nisheeth K.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2013.501},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-43964},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2013.501},
  annote =	{Keywords: model checking, Markov decision processes, parameterized verification}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2012.92
Bounded Satisfiability for PCTL

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, John Fearnley, and Sven Schewe

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 16, Computer Science Logic (CSL'12) - 26th International Workshop/21st Annual Conference of the EACSL (2012)

Abstract
While model checking PCTL for Markov chains is decidable in polynomial-time, the decidability of PCTL satisfiability is a long standing open problem. While general satisfiability is an intriguing challenge from a purely theoretical point of view, we argue that general solutions would not be of interest to practitioners: such solutions could be too big to be implementable or even infinite. Inspired by bounded synthesis techniques, we turn to the more applied problem of seeking models of a bounded size: we restrict our search to implementable - and therefore reasonably simple - models. We propose a procedure to decide whether or not a given PCTL formula has an implementable model by reducing it to an SMT problem. We have implemented our techniques and found that they can be applied to the practical problem of sanity checking - a procedure that allows a system designer to check whether their formula has an unexpectedly small model.
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Nathalie Bertrand, John Fearnley, and Sven Schewe. Bounded Satisfiability for PCTL. In Computer Science Logic (CSL'12) - 26th International Workshop/21st Annual Conference of the EACSL. Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 16, pp. 92-106, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2012)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.CSL.2012.92,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Fearnley, John and Schewe, Sven},
  title =	{{Bounded Satisfiability for PCTL}},
  booktitle =	{Computer Science Logic (CSL'12) - 26th International Workshop/21st Annual Conference of the EACSL},
  pages =	{92--106},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-42-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2012},
  volume =	{16},
  editor =	{C\'{e}gielski, Patrick and Durand, Arnaud},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2012.92},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-36667},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CSL.2012.92},
  annote =	{Keywords: Satisfiability, Temporal Logic, Probabilistic Logic}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.RTA.2012.101
On the Decidability Status of Reachability and Coverability in Graph Transformation Systems

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand, Giorgio Delzanno, Barbara König, Arnaud Sangnier, and Jan Stückrath

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 15, 23rd International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications (RTA'12) (2012)

Abstract
We study decidability issues for reachability problems in graph transformation systems, a powerful infinite-state model. For a fixed initial configuration, we consider reachability of an entirely specified configuration and of a configuration that satisfies a given pattern (coverability). The former is a fundamental problem for any computational model, the latter is strictly related to verification of safety properties in which the pattern specifies an infinite set of bad configurations. In this paper we reformulate results obtained, e.g., for context-free graph grammars and concurrency models, such as Petri nets, in the more general setting of graph transformation systems and study new results for classes of models obtained by adding constraints on the form of reduction rules.
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Nathalie Bertrand, Giorgio Delzanno, Barbara König, Arnaud Sangnier, and Jan Stückrath. On the Decidability Status of Reachability and Coverability in Graph Transformation Systems. In 23rd International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications (RTA'12). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 15, pp. 101-116, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2012)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.RTA.2012.101,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Delzanno, Giorgio and K\"{o}nig, Barbara and Sangnier, Arnaud and St\"{u}ckrath, Jan},
  title =	{{On the Decidability Status of Reachability and Coverability in  Graph Transformation Systems}},
  booktitle =	{23rd International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications (RTA'12)},
  pages =	{101--116},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-38-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2012},
  volume =	{15},
  editor =	{Tiwari, Ashish},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.RTA.2012.101},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-34871},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.RTA.2012.101},
  annote =	{Keywords: decidability, reachability, graph transformation, coverability}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2011.411
Minimal Disclosure in Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes

Authors: Nathalie Bertrand and Blaise Genest

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 13, IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2011)

Abstract
For security and efficiency reasons, most systems do not give the users a full access to their information. One key specification formalism for these systems are the so called Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDP for short), which have been extensively studied in several research communities, among which AI and model-checking. In this paper we tackle the problem of the minimal information a user needs at runtime to achieve a simple goal, modeled as reaching an objective with probability one. More precisely, to achieve her goal, the user can at each step either choose to use the partial information, or pay a fixed cost and receive the full information. The natural question is then to minimize the cost the user needs to fulfill her objective. This optimization question gives rise to two different problems, whether we consider to minimize the worst case cost, or the average cost. On the one hand, concerning the worst case cost, we show that efficient techniques from the model checking community can be adapted to compute the optimal worst case cost and give optimal strategies for the users. On the other hand, we show that the optimal average price (a question typically considered in the AI community) cannot be computed in general, nor can it be approximated in polynomial time even up to a large approximation factor.
Cite as

Nathalie Bertrand and Blaise Genest. Minimal Disclosure in Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes. In IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2011). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 13, pp. 411-422, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2011)

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@InProceedings{bertrand_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2011.411,
  author =	{Bertrand, Nathalie and Genest, Blaise},
  title =	{{Minimal Disclosure in Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes}},
  booktitle =	{IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2011)},
  pages =	{411--422},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-34-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2011},
  volume =	{13},
  editor =	{Chakraborty, Supratik and Kumar, Amit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2011.411},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-33286},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2011.411},
  annote =	{Keywords: Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes, Stochastic Games, Model-Checking, Worst-Case/Average-Case Analysis}
}
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