Heuristic-Guided Abstraction Refinement for Concurrent Systems

Predicate abstraction is an established technique in software verification. It inherently includes an abstraction refinement loop successively adding predicates until the right level of abstraction is found. For concurrent systems, predicate abstraction can be combined with spotlight abstraction, further reducing the state space by abstracting away certain processes. Refinement then has to decide whether to add a new predicate or a new process. Selecting the right predicates and processes is a crucial task: The positive effect of abstraction may be compromised by unfavourable refinement decisions. Here we present a heuristic approach to abstraction refinement. The basis for a decision is a set of refinement candidates, derived by multiple counterexample-generation. Candidates are evaluated with respect to their influence on other components in the system. Experimental results show that our technique can significantly speed up verification as compared to a naive abstraction refinement.