Generating effective test cases based on satisfiability modulo theory solvers for service‐oriented workflow applications

Web Service Business Process Execution Language (WS‐BPEL) is one of the most popular service‐oriented workflow applications. The unique features (e.g. dead path elimination semantics and correlation mechanism) of WS‐BPEL applications have raised enormous problems to its test case generation, especially in unit testing. Existing studies mainly assume that each path in the control flow graphs that correspond to WS‐BPEL applications is feasible, which always yields imprecise test cases or complicates testing results. The current study tackles this problem based on satisfiability modulo theory solvers. First, a new coverage criterion is proposed to measure the quality of test sets for testing WS‐BPEL applications. Second, decomposition algorithms are presented to obtain test paths that meet the proposed coverage criterion. Finally, this paper symbolically encodes each test path with several constraints by capturing the unique features of WS‐BPEL. These constraints are solved and the test cases (test paths and test data) are obtained with the help of satisfiability modulo theory solvers to test WS‐BPEL applications effectively. Experiments are conducted using our approach and other typical approaches (e.g. message‐sequence generation‐based approach and concurrent path analysis approach) with 10 WS‐BPEL applications. Experimental results demonstrate that the test cases generated by our approach can avoid instantiating idle instance and expose more faults. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于可满足性计数的(≠,=)约束工作流鲁棒性验证

工作流将业务过程分解为有序的步骤并分配人力资源加以执行.资源分配受访问控制约束及资源异常干扰,存在可满足性和鲁棒性问题.而其鲁棒性验证又依赖于其可满足性判定,目前通过求可满足性的一个解来完成.本文提出另一种途径,通过统计解的个数来完成判定.特别地,通过多项式计数归约为有求解器可用的#SAT问题,给出了互斥和绑定约束下的可满足性计数算法.实验表明,相对目前时间复杂度最低的可满足性求解算法,该可满足性计数算法显著提高了实际判定效率和适用规模.     

Another look at the phenomenon of phase transition

This study is motivated by the question whether there exists a characteristic feature common to the phenomenon of phase transition of properties taking place in the course of evolution of various sets of objects of different nature. A novel measure model of phase transition is presented, providing an insight into the process underlying different phase transitions. First, it is shown to conform to several famous and extensively investigated cases of phase transition. Then a few close consequences of applying the measure model are presented. It has been proved that monotone properties undergo a sharp phase transition. The measure model provides a sufficient condition of a sharp phase transition common to monotone and non-monotone properties as well. The measure model reveals that if a property Q undergoes a phase transition in the course of evolution of objects of a certain type, then there exist other secondary properties related to the measure of Q that also undergo a phase transition during the evolution.     

基于Craig插值的线性混成系统符号化模型检测

最强后件的计算是模型检测算法的核心.本文使用一阶逻辑可满足性模线性算术理论给出线性混成自动机的有界模型检测表示公式,利用一阶逻辑公式不可满足情况下的插值存在性定理,对线性混成自动机的有界模型检测公式进行指定的划分,使用支持线性算术插值计算的可满足性模理论后端证明引擎的线性时间复杂度的消解反证技术获得这两部分公式间的插值公式,按一阶逻辑Craig插值的性质,所得到的插值公式就是模型检测过程中最强后件公式的上近似表示.有效地避免了使用逻辑编码方案实现线性混成自动机模型检测过程中需要双指数时间复杂度的量词消去操作求取最强后件公式,也不需像有界模型检测按步长展开变迁公式进行可满足性判定.最后本文在此最强后件计算的基础上,以有界模型检测技术作为反例确认方法,实现了一种无假反例的混成系统近似可达集计算算法.实验证明该算法与目前已经得到广泛工业应用的有界模型检测算法相比具有更优的性能.     

Modified extremal optimization for the hard maximum satisfiability problem

Based on our recent study on probability distributions for evolution in extremal optimization (EO),we propose a modified framework called EOSAT to approximate ground states of the hard maximum satisfia...     

Branching Strategy Selection Approach Based on Vivification Ratio

The two most effective branching strategies LRB and VSIDS perform differently on different types of instances. Generally, LRB is more effective on crafted instances, while VSIDS is more effective on application ones. However, distinguishing the types of instances is difficult. To overcome this drawback, we propose a branching strategy selection approach based on the vivification ratio. This approach uses the LRB branching strategy more to solve the instances with a very low vivification ratio. We tested the instances from the main track of SAT competitions in recent years. The results show that the proposed approach is robust and it significantly increases the number of solved instances. It is worth mentioning that, with the help of our approach, the solver Maple_CM can solve additional 16 instances for the benchmark from the 2020 SAT competition.     

一种广义分子计算模型及其在 NP问题中的应用

目前各种分子计算模型多基于生物技术,求解一个问题的分子计算机算法很难不作修改地应用于其他类似的问题,尚不似传统计算机般通用。为此,提出一种基于图灵机的广义分子计算模型,其由一台单带图灵机、一条单向只写带和一条工作带组成,通过只写带与工作带之间特殊的映射函数实现并行的同时读、写操作。实验说明了该模型能够在多项式时间求解NP完全的满足性问题（SAT）,比现有分子计算模型在计算准确性和通用性上存在明显优势。     

一次性求解多个SAT问题

在实际应用中通常需要求解对应CNF（ConjunctiveNormalForm）公式之间仅相差几个子句的一系列SAT（SatisfiabilityProblem）问题,但目前绝大多数SAT求解算法都是针对单一SAT问题设计的。为此,基于DPLL提出了nDPLL算法,并在随机问题上对该算法的效率进行测试。实验结果表明,nDPLL算法能一次性求解多个SAT问题,对于特定范围的CNF公式集具有较高的效率,CNF公式集的规模越大、相近因子越高、子句数和变量数的比值越大,则nDPLL算法的效率越高。     

完全析取范式检测ALCN-概念的可满足性

基于"逐步展开"模式的Tableau算法在各类非循环定义的描述逻辑概念的可满足性判断中会产生大量的重复性的中间概念描述,因而浪费大量的空间.为此,提出了-个全新的对非循环定义的ALCN-概念可满足性进行判断的完全析取范式(CDNF)算法.CDNF算法直接在输入概念描述上,以角色为纽带构建不同层次的析取范式,从而将输入概念描述重组成一种层次结构的可满足性直接可知的完全析取范式,从而实现了真正意义上的"计算"可满足性.CDNF算法采用"一步到位"的展开方式并且直接在输入概念描述上进行处理,因而可最大程度地消除概念描述的重复.因此,CDNF算法比Tableau算法能节省线性甚至指数倍于输入概念描述长度的空间代价.     

互斥约束工作流可满足性决策的匹配剪枝模式回溯法

针对用于工作流可满足决策的模式回溯技术如何平衡性能与代价的问题,提出了一种对部分模式解及时进行授权匹配验证的优化方法,牺牲一定验证效率以增强剪枝能力。就仅受互斥约束的问题情形,利用实例难易程度的两极分化现象对总体时间性能进行了分析。随机生成数据集上的实验表明,这一优化极大地降低了模式回溯在难实例上的时间代价,而对易实例执行时间的影响很小,且相对于其他基于动态规划的代表性算法,优化后的算法在时间和空间性能上均有显著优势。