Verification of P2P live streaming systems using symmetry-based semiautomatic abstractions

P2P systems are one of the most efficient data transport technologies in use today. Particularly, P2P live streaming systems have been growing in popularity recently. However, analyzing such systems is difficult. Developers are not able to realize a complete test due the due to system size and complex dynamic behavior. This may lead us to develop protocols with errors, unfair or even with low performance. One way of performing such an analysis is using formal methods. Model Checking is one such method that can be used for the formal verification of P2P systems. However it suffers from the combinatory explosion of states. The problem can be minimized with techniques such as abstraction and symmetry reduction. This work combines both techniques to produce reduced models that can be verified in feasible time. We present a methodology to generate abstract models of reactive systems semi-automatically, based on the model´s symmetry. It defines modeling premises to make the abstraction procedure semiautomatic, i.e., without modification of the model. Moreover, it presents abstraction patterns based on the system symmetry and shows which properties are consistent with each pattern. The reductions obtained by the methodology were significant. In our test case of a P2P network, it has enabled the verification of liveness properties over the abstract models which did not finish with the original model after more than two weeks of intensive computation. Our results indicate that the use of model checking for the verification of P2P systems is feasible, and that our modeling methodology can increase the efficiency of the verification algorithms enough to enable the analysis of real complex P2P live streaming systems.