Étienne André ; Didier Lime ; Olivier H. Roux - Reachability and liveness in parametric timed automata

lmcs:6312 - Logical Methods in Computer Science, February 9, 2022, Volume 18, Issue 1 - https://doi.org/10.46298/lmcs-18(1:31)2022
Reachability and liveness in parametric timed automataArticle

Authors: Étienne André ; Didier Lime ; Olivier H. Roux

    We study timed systems in which some timing features are unknown parameters. Parametric timed automata (PTAs) are a classical formalism for such systems but for which most interesting problems are undecidable. Notably, the parametric reachability emptiness problem, i.e., the emptiness of the parameter valuations set allowing to reach some given discrete state, is undecidable. Lower-bound/upper-bound parametric timed automata (L/U-PTAs) achieve decidability for reachability properties by enforcing a separation of parameters used as upper bounds in the automaton constraints, and those used as lower bounds. In this paper, we first study reachability. We exhibit a subclass of PTAs (namely integer-points PTAs) with bounded rational-valued parameters for which the parametric reachability emptiness problem is decidable. Using this class, we present further results improving the boundary between decidability and undecidability for PTAs and their subclasses such as L/U-PTAs. We then study liveness. We prove that: (1) deciding the existence of at least one parameter valuation for which there exists an infinite run in an L/U-PTA is PSpace-complete; (2) the existence of a parameter valuation such that the system has a deadlock is however undecidable; (3) the problem of the existence of a valuation for which a run remains in a given set of locations exhibits a very thin border between decidability and undecidability.


    Volume: Volume 18, Issue 1
    Published on: February 9, 2022
    Accepted on: December 29, 2021
    Submitted on: April 21, 2020
    Keywords: Computer Science - Logic in Computer Science,D.2.4,F.4.3

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