On-the-fly PCTL fast mean-field model-checking for self-organising coordination - Preliminary version

Typical self-organising collective systems consist of a large number of inter- acting objects that coordinate their activities in a decentralised and often implicit way. Design of such systems is challenging and requires suitable, scalable analysis tools to check properties of proposed system designs before they are put into operation. The exploitation of mean field approximation in model-checking techniques seems a promising approach to overcome scal- ability issues raised by the size of such collective systems. We present a novel scalable, on-the-fly model-checking procedure to verify bounded PCTL properties of selected individuals in the context of very large systems of in- dependent interacting objects. The proposed procedure combines on-the-fly model checking techniques with deterministic mean-field approximation in discrete time. The asymptotic correctness of the procedure is proven and a prototype implementation of the model-checker is presented. The potential of the verification approach is illustrated by its application on several self- organising collective systems and an overview of remaining open issues and future extensions is provided.