Motivated by the successful application of the theory of regular languages to formal verification of finite-state systems, there is a renewed interest in developing a theory of analyzable functions from strings to numerical values that can provide a foundation for analyzing {\em quantitative} properties of finite-state systems. In this paper, we propose a deterministic model for associating costs with strings that is parameterized by operations of interest (such as addition, scaling, and $\min$), a notion of {\em regularity} that provides a yardstick to measure expressiveness, and study decision problems and theoretical properties of resulting classes of cost functions. Our definition of regularity relies on the theory of string-to-tree transducers, and allows associating costs with events that are conditional upon regular properties of future events. Our model of {\em cost register automata} allows computation of regular functions using multiple "write-only" registers whose values can be combined using the allowed set of operations. We show that classical shortest-path algorithms as well as algorithms designed for computing {\em discounted costs}, can be adopted for solving the min-cost problems for the more general classes of functions specified in our model. Cost register automata with $\min$ and increment give a deterministic model that is equivalent to {\em weighted automata}, an extensively studied nondeterministic model, and this connection results in new insights and new open problems.
A register automaton is a finite automaton with finitely many registers ranging from an infinite alphabet. Since the valuations of registers are infinite, there are infinitely many configurations. We describe a technique to classify infinite register automata configurations into finitely many exact representative configurations. Using the finitary representation, we give an algorithm solving the reachability problem for register automata. We moreover define a computation tree logic for register automata and solve its model checking problem.
Timed automata and register automata are well-known models of computation over timed and data words respectively. The former has clocks that allow to test the lapse of time between two events, whilst the latter includes registers that can store data values for later comparison. Although these two models behave in appearance differently, several decision problems have the same (un)decidability and complexity results for both models. As a prominent example, emptiness is decidable for alternating automata with one clock or register, both with non-primitive recursive complexity. This is not by cha…
We propose a novel automata model over the alphabet of rational numbers, which we call register automata over the rationals (RA-Q). It reads a sequence of rational numbers and outputs another rational number. RA-Q is an extension of the well-known register automata (RA) over infinite alphabets, which are finite automata equipped with a finite number of registers/variables for storing values. Like in the standard RA, the RA-Q model allows both equality and ordering tests between values. It, moreover, allows to perform linear arithmetic between certain variables. The model is quite expressive: i…
We investigate commutative images of languages recognised by register automata and grammars. Semi-linear and rational sets can be naturally extended to this setting by allowing for orbit-finite unions instead of only finite ones. We prove that commutative images of languages of one-register automata are not always semi-linear, but they are always rational. We also lift the latter result to grammars: commutative images of one-register context-free languages are rational, and in consequence commutatively equivalent to register automata. We conjecture analogous results for automata and grammars w…
Symbolic Finite Automata and Register Automata are two orthogonal extensions of finite automata motivated by real-world problems where data may have unbounded domains. These automata address a demand for a model over large or infinite alphabets, respectively. Both automata models have interesting applications and have been successful in their own right. In this paper, we introduce Symbolic Register Automata, a new model that combines features from both symbolic and register automata, with a view on applications that were previously out of reach. We study their properties and provide algorithms…
Register automata extend classical finite automata with a finite set of registers that can store data from an infinite data domain for later equality comparisons with data from an input data word. While the registers in the original model of register automata, introduced in 1994 by Kaminski and Francez, can only store data occurring in the data word processed so far, we study here the more expressive class of register automata with guessing, where registers can nondeterministically take any value from the infinite data domain, even if this data does not occur in the input data word. It is well…
We study alternating register automata on data words and data trees in relation to logics. A data word (resp. data tree) is a word (resp. tree) whose every position carries a label from a finite alphabet and a data value from an infinite domain. We investigate one-way automata with alternating control over data words or trees, with one register for storing data and comparing them for equality. This is a continuation of the study started by Demri, Lazic and Jurdzinski. From the standpoint of register automata models, this work aims at two objectives: (1) simplifying the existent decidability pr…
We propose a new symbolic trace semantics for register automata (extended finite state machines) which records both the sequence of input symbols that occur during a run as well as the constraints on input parameters that are imposed by this run. Our main result is a generalization of the classical Myhill-Nerode theorem to this symbolic setting. Our generalization requires the use of three relations to capture the additional structure of register automata. Location equivalence $\equiv_l$ captures that symbolic traces end in the same location, transition equivalence $\equiv_t$ captures that the…
We investigate the complexity of the containment problem "Does $L(A)\subseteq L(B)$ hold?", where $B$ is an unambiguous register automaton and $A$ is an arbitrary register automaton. We prove that the problem is decidable and give upper bounds on the computational complexity in the general case, and when $B$ is restricted to have a fixed number of registers.
Register automata are finite automata equipped with a finite set of registers ranging over the domain of some relational structure like $(\mathbb N;=)$ or $(\mathbb Q;<)$. Register automata process words over the domain, and along a run of the automaton, the registers can store data from the input word for later comparisons. It is long known that the universality problem, i.e., the problem to decide whether a given register automaton accepts all words over the domain, is undecidable. Recently, we proved the problem to be decidable in 2-ExpSpace if the register automaton under study is over $(\…
We consider one of the weakest variants of cost register automata over a tropical semiring, namely copyless cost register automata over $\mathbb{N}$ with updates using $\min$ and increments. We show that this model can simulate, in some sense, the runs of counter machines with zero-tests. We deduce that a number of problems pertaining to that model are undecidable, in particular equivalence, disproving a conjecture of Alur et al. from 2012. To emphasize how weak these machines are, we also show that they can be expressed as a restricted form of linearly-ambiguous weighted automata.
We introduce session automata, an automata model to process data words, i.e., words over an infinite alphabet. Session automata support the notion of fresh data values, which are well suited for modeling protocols in which sessions using fresh values are of major interest, like in security protocols or ad-hoc networks. Session automata have an expressiveness partly extending, partly reducing that of classical register automata. We show that, unlike register automata and their various extensions, session automata are robust: They (i) are closed under intersection, union, and (resource-sensitive…
Cost register automata (CRA) and its subclass, copyless CRA, were recently proposed by Alur et al. as a new model for computing functions over strings. We study some structural properties, expressiveness, and closure properties of copyless CRA. We show that copyless CRA are strictly less expressive than weighted automata and are not closed under reverse operation. To find a better class we impose restrictions on copyless CRA, which ends successfully with a new robust computational model that is closed under reverse and other extensions.
Our starting point are register automata for data words, in the style of Kaminski and Francez. We study the effects of the single-use restriction, which says that a register is emptied immediately after being used. We show that under the single-use restriction, the theory of automata for data words becomes much more robust. The main results are: (a) five different machine models are equivalent as language acceptors, including one-way and two-way single-use register automata; (b) one can recover some of the algebraic theory of languages over finite alphabets, including a version of the Krohn-Rh…
In the past decades, classical results from algebra, including Hilbert's Basis Theorem, had various applications in formal languages, including a proof of the Ehrenfeucht Conjecture, decidability of HDT0L sequence equivalence, and decidability of the equivalence problem for functional tree-to-string transducers. In this paper, we study the scope of the algebraic methods mentioned above, particularily as applied to the equivalence problem for register automata. We provide two results, one positive, one negative. The positive result is that equivalence is decidable for MSO transformations on uno…
Register pushdown automata (RPDA) is an extension of classical pushdown automata to handle data values in a restricted way. RPDA attracts attention as a model of a query language for structured documents with data values. The membership and emptiness problems for RPDA are known to be EXPTIME-complete. This paper shows the membership problem becomes PSPACE-complete and NP-complete for nondecreasing and growing RPDA, respectively, while the emptiness problem remains EXPTIME-complete for these subclasses.
We study the universality and inclusion problems for register automata over equality data. We show that the universality and the inclusion problems can be solved with 2-EXPTIME complexity when the input automata are without guessing and unambiguous, improving on the currently best-known 2-EXPSPACE upper bound by Mottet and Quaas. When the number of registers of both automata is fixed, we obtain a lower EXPTIME complexity, also improving the EXPSPACE upper bound from Mottet and Quaas for fixed number of registers. We reduce inclusion to universality, and then we reduce universality to the probl…
Logics and automata models for languages over infinite alphabets, such as Freeze LTL and register automata, serve the verification of processes or documents with data. They relate tightly to formalisms over nominal sets, such as nondetermininistic orbit-finite automata (NOFAs), where names play the role of data. Reasoning problems in such formalisms tend to be computationally hard. Name-binding nominal automata models such as regular nondeterministic nominal automata (RNNAs) have been shown to be computationally more tractable. In the present paper, we introduce a linear-time fixpoint logic Ba…
We propose TOPL automata as a new method for runtime verification of systems with unbounded resource generation. Paradigmatic such systems are object-oriented programs which can dynamically generate an unbounded number of fresh object identities during their execution. Our formalism is based on register automata, a particularly successful approach in automata over infinite alphabets which administers a finite-state machine with boundedly many input-storing registers. We show that TOPL automata are equally expressive to register automata and yet suitable to express properties of programs. Compa…
Register automata (RAs) are finite automata extended with a finite set of registers to store and compare data from an infinite domain. We study the concept of synchronizing data words in RAs: does there exist a data word that sends all states of the RA to a single state? For deterministic RAs with k registers (k-DRAs), we prove that inputting data words with 2k+1 distinct data from the infinite data domain is sufficient to synchronize. We show that the synchronization problem for DRAs is in general PSPACE-complete, and it is NLOGSPACE-complete for 1-DRAs. For nondeterministic RAs (NRAs), we sh…
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens（雅典国立与卡波季斯特里亚大学）；National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”（德谟克利特国家科学研究中心）；University of Piraeus（比雷埃夫斯大学）
We propose an automaton model which is a combination of symbolic and register automata, i.e., we enrich symbolic automata with memory. We call such automata Symbolic Register Automata (SRA). SRA extend the expressive power of symbolic automata, by allowing Boolean formulas to be applied not only to the last element read from the input string, but to multiple elements, stored in their registers. SRA also extend register automata, by allowing arbitrary Boolean formulas, besides equality predicates. We study the closure properties of SRA under union, intersection, concatenation, Kleene closure, c…
We introduce an automata-theoretic method for the verification of distributed algorithms running on ring networks. In a distributed algorithm, an arbitrary number of processes cooperate to achieve a common goal (e.g., elect a leader). Processes have unique identifiers (pids) from an infinite, totally ordered domain. An algorithm proceeds in synchronous rounds, each round allowing a process to perform a bounded sequence of actions such as send or receive a pid, store it in some register, and compare register contents wrt. the associated total order. An algorithm is supposed to be correct indepe…
Programs with dynamic allocation are able to create and use an unbounded number of fresh resources, such as references, objects, files, etc. We propose History-Register Automata (HRA), a new automata-theoretic formalism for modelling such programs. HRAs extend the expressiveness of previous approaches and bring us to the limits of decidability for reachability checks. The distinctive feature of our machines is their use of unbounded memory sets (histories) where input symbols can be selectively stored and compared with symbols to follow. In addition, stored symbols can be consumed or deleted b…
We study synthesis of reactive systems interacting with environments using an infinite data domain. A popular formalism for specifying and modelling such systems is register automata and transducers. They extend finite-state automata by adding registers to store data values and to compare the incoming data values against stored ones. Synthesis from nondeterministic or universal register automata is undecidable in general. However, its register-bounded variant, where additionally a bound on the number of registers in a sought transducer is given, is known to be decidable for universal register …
We propose an automaton model which is a combination of symbolic and register automata, i.e., we enrich symbolic automata with memory. We call such automata Register Match Automata (RMA). RMA extend the expressive power of symbolic automata, by allowing formulas to be applied not only to the last element read from the input string, but to multiple elements, stored in their registers. RMA also extend register automata, by allowing arbitrary formulas, besides equality predicates. We study the closure properties of RMA under union, concatenation, Kleene+, complement and determinization and show t…
A data tree is an unranked ordered tree whose every node is labelled by a letter from a finite alphabet and an element ("datum") from an infinite set, where the latter can only be compared for equality. The article considers alternating automata on data trees that can move downward and rightward, and have one register for storing data. The main results are that nonemptiness over finite data trees is decidable but not primitive recursive, and that nonemptiness of safety automata is decidable but not elementary. The proofs use nondeterministic tree automata with faulty counters. Allowing upward …
We study synthesis of reactive systems interacting with environments using an infinite data domain. A popular formalism for specifying and modelling such systems is register automata and transducers. They extend finite-state automata by adding registers to store data values and to compare the incoming data values against stored ones. Synthesis from nondeterministic or universal register automata is undecidable in general. However, its register-bounded variant, where additionally a bound on the number of registers in a sought transducer is given, is known to be decidable for universal register …
We consider linear cost-register automata (equivalent to weighted automata) over the semiring of nonnegative rationals, which generalise probabilistic automata. The two problems of boundedness and zero isolation ask whether there is a sequence of words that converge to infinity and to zero, respectively. In the general model both problems are undecidable so we focus on the copyless linear restriction. There, we show that the boundedness problem is decidable. As for the zero isolation problem we need to further restrict the class. We obtain a model, where zero isolation becomes equivalent to un…
We develop a general framework for the specification and implementation of systems whose executions are words, or partial orders, over an infinite alphabet. As a model of an implementation, we introduce class register automata, a one-way automata model over words with multiple data values. Our model combines register automata and class memory automata. It has natural interpretations. In particular, it captures communicating automata with an unbounded number of processes, whose semantics can be described as a set of (dynamic) message sequence charts. On the specification side, we provide a loca…
Model learning (a.k.a. active automata learning) is a highly effective technique for obtaining black-box finite state models of software components. Thus far, generalisation to infinite state systems with inputs/outputs that carry data parameters has been challenging. Existing model learning tools for infinite state systems face scalability problems and can only be applied to restricted classes of systems (register automata with equality/inequality). In this article, we show how we can boost the performance of model learning techniques by extracting the constraints on input and output paramete…
Motivated by real-time monitoring and data processing applications, we develop a formal theory of quantitative queries for streaming data that can be evaluated efficiently. We consider the model of unambiguous Cost Register Automata (CRAs), which are machines that combine finite-state control (for identifying regular patterns) with a finite set of data registers (for computing numerical aggregates). The definition of CRAs is parameterized by the collection of numerical operations that can be applied to the registers. These machines give rise to the class of streamable regular transductions (SR…
We introduce an automata model for data words, that is words that carry at each position a symbol from a finite alphabet and a value from an unbounded data domain. The model is (semantically) a restriction of data automata, introduced by Bojanczyk, et. al. in 2006, therefore it is called weak data automata. It is strictly less expressive than data automata and the expressive power is incomparable with register automata. The expressive power of weak data automata corresponds exactly to existential monadic second order logic with successor +1 and data value equality \sim, EMSO2(+1,\sim). It foll…
Copyless streaming string transducers (copyless SST) have been introduced by R. Alur and P. Cerny in 2010 as a one-way deterministic automata model to define transformations of finite strings. Copyless SST extend deterministic finite state automata with a set of registers in which to store intermediate output strings, and those registers can be combined and updated all along the run, in a linear manner, i.e., no register content can be copied on transitions. It is known that copyless SST capture exactly the class of MSO-definable string-to-string transformations, as defined by B. Courcelle, an…
Extensions to finite-state automata on strings, such as multi-head automata or multi-counter automata, have been successfully used to encode many infinite-state non-regular verification problems. In this paper, we consider a generalization of automata-theoretic infinite-state verification from strings to labeled series-parallel graphs. We define a model of non-deterministic, 2-way, concurrent automata working on series-parallel graphs and communicating through shared registers on the nodes of the graph. We consider the following verification problem: given a family of series-parallel graphs de…
The Parikh finite word automaton (PA) was introduced and studied by Klaedtke and Ruess in 2003. Natural variants of the PA arise from viewing a PA equivalently as an automaton that keeps a count of its transitions and semilinearly constrains their numbers. Here we adopt this view and define the affine PA (APA), that extends the PA by having each transition induce an affine transformation on the PA registers, and the PA on letters (LPA), that restricts the PA by forcing any two transitions on same letter to affect the registers equally. Then we report on the expressiveness, closure, and decidab…
Complex Event Recognition with Symbolic Register Transducers: Extended Technical Report
Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications, National Center for Scientific Research “Demokritos”（希腊德谟克利特国家科学研究中心信息学与电信研究所）；Department of Maritime Studies, University of Piraeus（比雷埃夫斯大学海事研究系）
Consider a finite set $A$ and an integer $n \geq 1$. This paper studies the concept of complete simulation in the context of semigroups of transformations of $A^n$, also known as finite state-homogeneous automata networks. For $m \geq n$, a transformation of $A^m$ is \emph{$n$-complete of size $m$} if it may simulate every transformation of $A^n$ by updating one coordinate (or register) at a time. Using tools from memoryless computation, it is established that there is no $n$-complete transformation of size $n$, but there is such a transformation of size $n+1$. By studying the the time of simu…
In this paper, we investigate the problem of synthesizing computable functions of infinite words over an infinite alphabet (data omega-words). The notion of computability is defined through Turing machines with infinite inputs which can produce the corresponding infinite outputs in the limit. We use non-deterministic transducers equipped with registers, an extension of register automata with outputs, to specify functions. Such transducers may not define functions but more generally relations of data omega-words, and we show that it is PSpace-complete to test whether a given transducer defines …
Pushdown systems (PDS) are known as an abstract model of recursive programs, and model checking methods for PDS have been studied. Register PDS (RPDS) are PDS augmented by registers to deal with data values from an infinite domain in a restricted way. A linear temporal logic (LTL) model checking method for RPDS with regular valuations has been proposed; however, the method requires the register automata (RA) used for representing a regular valuation to be backward-deterministic. This paper proposes another approach to the same problem, in which the model checking problem for RPDS is reduced to…
In this paper we study a subclass of pebble automata (PA) for data languages for which the emptiness problem is decidable. Namely, we introduce the so-called top view weak PA. Roughly speaking, top view weak PA are weak PA where the equality test is performed only between the data values seen by the two most recently placed pebbles. The emptiness problem for this model is decidable. We also show that it is robust: alternating, nondeterministic and deterministic top view weak PA have the same recognition power. Moreover, this model is strong enough to accept all data languages expressible in Li…
