Series A: Research Reports, No. 14. Espoo, Finland: Helsinki Unversity of Technology, Digital Systems Laboratory, September 1990.
Abstract: Six methods for efficient reachability analysis of distributed systems are studie and compared: symmetry method (Huber et al), parameterising method (Lindqvist), stubborn set method (Valmari), reduction theory (Berthelot, Haddad), symbolic model checking (Burch et al), and incomplete state-space generation (Holzmann). The methods are evaluated by how well they are suited for practical reachability graph generation by computer. Finally, it is observed that most of the methods are mutually independent and it is considered how they can be combined to complement each other. Indeed, the symmetry method, stubborn set method, reduction theory and imcomplete state-space generation can all be used simultaneously to obtain better results than with any of them alone.
Keywords: efficient reachability analysis, (comparative study); symmetry method; parameterising method; stubborn set method; reduction theory; symbolic model checking; incomplete state-space generation.