Bounded Model Checking and Feature Omission Diversity

Abstract: In this paper we introduce a novel way to speed up the discovery of counterexamples in bounded model checking, based on parallel runs over versions of a system in which features have been randomly disabled. As shown in previous work, adding constraints to a bounded model checking problem can reduce the size of the verification problem and dramatically decrease the time required to find counterexample. Adapting a technique developed in software testing to this problem provides a simple way to produce useful partial verification problems, with a resulting decrease in average time until a counterexample is produced. If no counterexample is found, partial verification results can also be useful in practice.