A Semantically-Based Methodology for Proving Safety, Liveness, and Security Properties of Parallel Systems

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Current research to establish behavioral properties of concurrent systems uses several different paradigmatic semantics, each with its own domain of applicability. This project develops a unifying denotational semantic framework for reasoning about safety and liveness properties of concurrent programs in a broad variety of paradigms, including shared-variable parallelism, asynchronous communicating processes, dataflow networks, and Java-style concurrent objects. A single, simple, mathematical model based on "transition traces" is applied to interpret these paradigms, permitting analysis and comparison of programs and specifications across paradigms. This denotational approach additionally supports syntax-directed, or compositional, reasoning. By combining concurrency with procedures and local variable declarations, the framework developed will support Java-style concurrent object-oriented programming and assist in developing a formal basis for the design of correct and secure Java programs. Principles of reasoning that apply to multiple paradigms, as well as laws of equivalence specific to a particular paradigm, are identified. To demonstrate the utility and advantages of the transition-trace approach, semantically-based techniques are applied to security protocols. The project also explores the applicability of semantically-based reasoning in improving the efficiency of automated model checking.