EDBT 2026 Demo / reviewers in the wild / expert
Vivek Nigam
dblp:26/7042
· DBLP profile ↗
48ranked-venue papers
19as first author
14since 2021 · last 2025
0000-0003-4089-1218ORCID · corroborated
Domains — the database's venue-derived domains; a paper can count in several
Theory of computation · 21 · 10 first-author · 5 since 2021Software engineering, systems software and programming languages · 14 · 6 first-author · 4 since 2021Security and privacy · 9 · 1 first-author · 3 since 2021Artificial intelligence and machine learning · 4 · 3 first-author · 2 since 2021Computer networks · 3 · 1 since 2021Systems, architecture and hardware · 2 · 2 first-authorApplied, interdisciplinary, general and emerging computing · 1 · 1 since 2021
| Year | Publication | Venue | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Fault Injection and Reliability Analysis on Time-Sensitive NetworkingabstractTime-sensitive networking (TSN) provides high-performance deterministic communication using time scheduling. In theory, the rigor of a TSN schedule is the key to achieving deterministic communication. However, real devices are prone to errors. TSN-based applications require both fault-tolerance and end-to-end latency guarantee. In this work, we identify the limitations of the TSN scheduling method, enhancing the simulation model NeSTiNg to enable fault-injection. The fault-injection is done by introducing new components, and modules to emulate permanent, transient, and intermittent faults with the aid of probability distributions. We evaluate the effectiveness of the fault-injection comparing the latency and jitter results to the ones expected by the schedule generator TSNsched, also presenting a technique to increase network reliability on faulty scenarios. Finally, we demonstrate through experiments the impact of applying the fault-tolerant scheduling approach described in this article, achieving jitter-free schedules regardless of the presence of faults in the network. Renan M. Silva, Aellison Cassimiro T. dos Santos, Iguatemi E. Fonseca, Vivek Nigam |
IEEE Internet Things J. | 4 |
| 2024 | Design for dependability - State of the art and trends
Hezhen Liu, Chengqiang Huang, Jiacheng Yin, Qunli Zhang, Vivek Nigam, Joseph Sifakis |
J. Syst. Softw. | 9 |
| 2023 | Incremental Rewriting Modulo SMTabstractAbstract Rewriting Modulo SMT combines two powerful automated deduction techniques (1) rewriting and (2) SMT-solving. Rewriting enables the specification of behavior of systems using rewriting rules, while SMT theories specify system properties. Rewriting Modulo SMT is enabled by combining existing tools, such as Maude and SMT solvers. Search algorithms used for carrying out Rewriting Modulo SMT, however, cannot exploit the incremental solving features available in SMT solvers as they are based on breadth-first search. This paper addresses this limitation by proposing Incremental Rewriting Modulo SMT Theories, which is a syntactical restriction to rewriting rules. This restriction turns out to naturally be used in several applications of Rewriting Modulo SMT, including the verification of algorithms, cyber-physical systems, and security protocols. Moreover, we propose a Hybrid-Search algorithm for Incremental Rewriting Modulo SMT Theories that combines breadth-first search and depth-first search, thus enabling incremental SMT-solving. We demonstrate through a collection of existing benchmarks that the Hybrid-Search algorithm can achieve a 10 times performance improvement in verification times. Gerald Whitters, Vivek Nigam, Carolyn L. Talcott |
CADE | 2 |
| 2023 | Automating Vehicle SOA Threat Analysis Using a Model-Based Methodology
Yuri Gil Dantas, Simon Barner, Pei Ke, Vivek Nigam, Ulrich Schöpp |
ICISSP | 4 |
| 2023 | Automating Recoverability Proofs for Cyber-Physical Systems with Runtime Assurance Architectures
Vivek Nigam, Carolyn L. Talcott |
TASE | 1 |
| 2023 | Automating Safety and Security Co-design through Semantically Rich Architecture PatternsabstractDuring the design of safety-critical systems, safety and security engineers make use of architecture patterns, such as Watchdog and Firewall, to address identified failures and threats. Often, however, the deployment of safety architecture patterns has consequences on security; e.g., the deployment of a safety architecture pattern may lead to new threats. The other way around may also be possible; i.e., the deployment of a security architecture pattern may lead to new failures. Safety and security co-design is, therefore, required to understand such consequences and tradeoffs in order to reach appropriate system designs. Currently, architecture pattern descriptions, including their consequences, are described using natural language. Therefore, their deployment in system design is carried out manually by experts and thus is time-consuming and prone to human error, especially given the high system complexity. We propose the use of semantically rich architecture patterns to enable automated support for safety and security co-design by using Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KRR) methods. Based on our domain-specific language, we specify reasoning principles as logic specifications written as answer-set programs. KRR engines enable the automation of safety and security co-engineering activities, including the automated recommendation of which architecture patterns can address failures or threats, and consequences of deploying such patterns. We demonstrate our approach on an example taken from the ISO 21434 standard. Yuri Gil Dantas, Vivek Nigam |
ACM Trans. Cyber Phys. Syst. | 2 |
| 2022 | On the Formalization and Computational Complexity of Resilience Problems for Cyber-Physical Systems
Musab AlTurki, Tajana Ban Kirigin, Max I. Kanovich, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov, Carolyn L. Talcott |
ICTAC | 4 |
| 2022 | A Model-based System Engineering Plugin for Safety Architecture Pattern Synthesis
Yuri Gil Dantas, Tiziano Munaro, Carmen Cârlan, Vivek Nigam, Simon Barner, Shiqing Fan, Alexander Pretschner, Ulrich Schöpp, Sergey Tverdyshev |
MODELSWARD | 4 |
| 2022 | Automated construction of security integrity wrappers for Industry 4.0 applications
Vivek Nigam, Carolyn L. Talcott |
J. Log. Algebraic Methods Program. | 1 |
| 2022 | Detection and diagnosis of deviations in distributed systems of autonomous agentsabstractAbstract Given the complexity of cyber-physical systems (CPS), such as swarms of drones, often deviations, from a planned mission or protocol, occur which may in some cases lead to harm and losses. To increase the robustness of such systems, it is necessary to detect when deviations happen and diagnose the cause(s) for a deviation. We build on our previous work on soft agents, a formal framework based on using rewriting logic for specifying and reasoning about distributed CPS, to develop methods for diagnosis of CPS at design time. We accomplish this by (1) extending the soft agents framework with Fault Models; (2) proposing a protocol specification language and the definition of protocol deviations; and (3) development of workflows/algorithms for detection and diagnosis of protocol deviations. Our approach is partially inspired by existing work using counterfactual reasoning for fault ascription. We demonstrate our machinery with a collection of experiments. Vivek Nigam, Minyoung Kim 0002, Ian A. Mason, Carolyn L. Talcott |
Math. Struct. Comput. Sci. | 1 |
| 2021 | Proof Search and Certificates for Evidential TransactionsabstractAbstract Attestation logics have been used for specifying systems with policies involving different principals. Cyberlogic is an attestation logic used for the specification of Evidential Transactions (ETs). In such transactions, evidence has to be provided supporting its validity with respect to given policies. For example, visa applicants may be required to demonstrate that they have sufficient funds to visit a foreign country. Such evidence can be expressed as a Cyberlogic proof, possibly combined with non-logical data (e.g., a digitally signed document). A key issue is how to construct and communicate such evidence/proofs. It turns out that attestation modalities are challenging to use established proof-theoretic methods such as focusing. Our first contribution is the refinement of Cyberlogic proof theory with knowledge operators which can be used to represent knowledge bases local to one or more principals. Our second contribution is the identification of an executable fragment of Cyberlogic, called Cyberlogic programs, enabling the specification of ETs. Our third contribution is a sound and complete proof system for Cyberlogic programs enabling proof search similar to search in logic programming. Our final contribution is a proof certificate format for Cyberlogic programs inspired by Foundational Proof Certificates as a means to communicate evidence and check its validity. Vivek Nigam, Giselle Reis, Samar Rahmouni, Harald Ruess |
CADE | 1 |
| 2021 | Process-As-Formula Interpretation: A Substructural Multimodal View (Invited Talk)abstractIn this survey, we show how the processes-as-formulas interpretation, where computations and proof-search are strongly connected, can be used to specify different concurrent behaviors as logical theories. The proposed interpretation is parametric and modular, and it faithfully captures behaviors such as: Linear and spatial computations, epistemic state of agents, and preferences in concurrent systems. The key for this modularity is the incorporation of multimodalities in a resource aware logic, together with the ability of quantifying on such modalities. We achieve tight adequacy theorems by relying on a focusing discipline that allows for controlling the proof search process. Elaine Pimentel, Carlos Olarte, Vivek Nigam |
FSCD | 3 |
| 2021 | On Security Analysis of Periodic Systems: Expressiveness and ComplexityabstractDevelopment of automated technological systems has seen the increase in interconnectivity among its components. This includes Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and the underlying communication between sensors and controllers. This paper is a step toward a formal framework for specifying such systems and analyzing underlying properties including safety and security. We introduce automata systems (AS) motivated by I4.0 applications. We identify various subclasses of AS that reflect different types of requirements on I4.0. We investigate the complexity of the problem of functional correctness of these systems as well as their vulnerability to attacks. We model the presence of various levels of threats to the system by proposing a range of intruder models, based on the number of actions intruders can use. Musab AlTurki, Tajana Ban Kirigin, Max I. Kanovich, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov, Carolyn L. Talcott |
ICISSP | 4 |
| 2021 | Resource and timing aspects of security protocolsabstractProtocol security verification is one of the best success stories of formal methods. However, some aspects important to protocol security, such as time and resources, are not covered by many formal models. While timing issues involve e.g., network delays and timeouts, resources such as memory, processing power, or network bandwidth are at the root of Denial of Service (DoS) attacks which have been a serious security concern. It is useful in practice and more challenging for formal protocol verification to determine whether a service is vulnerable not only to powerful intruders, but also to resource-bounded intruders that cannot generate or intercept arbitrarily large volumes of traffic. A refined Dolev–Yao intruder model is proposed, that can only consume at most some specified amount of resources in any given time window. Timed protocol theories that specify service resource usage during protocol execution are also proposed. It is shown that the proposed DoS problem is undecidable in general and is PSPACE-complete for the class of resource-bounded, balanced systems. Additionally, we describe a decidable fragment in the verification of the leakage problem for resource-sensitive timed protocol theories. Abraão Aires Urquiza, Musab AlTurki, Tajana Ban Kirigin, Max I. Kanovich, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov, Carolyn L. Talcott |
J. Comput. Secur. | 5 |
| 2020 | Slow denial-of-service attacks on software defined networks
Túlio A. Pascoal, Iguatemi E. Fonseca, Vivek Nigam |
Comput. Networks | 3 |
| 2019 | Resource-Bounded Intruders in Denial of Service AttacksabstractDenial of Service (DoS) attacks have been a serious security concern, as no service is, in principle, protected against them. Although a Dolev-Yao intruder with unlimited resources can trivially render any service unavailable, DoS attacks do not necessarily have to be carried out by such (extremely) powerful intruders. It is useful in practice and more challenging for formal protocol verification to determine whether a service is vulnerable even to resource-bounded intruders that cannot generate or intercept arbitrary large volumes of traffic. This paper proposes a novel, more refined intruder model where the intruder can only consume at most some specified amount of resources in any given time window. Additionally, we propose protocol theories that may contain timeouts and specify service resource usage during protocol execution. In contrast to the existing resource-conscious protocol verification models, our model allows finer and more subtle analysis of DoS problems. We illustrate the power of our approach by representing a number of classes of DoS attacks, such as, Slow, Asymmetric and Amplification DoS attacks, exhausting different types of resources of the target, such as, number of workers, processing power, memory, and network bandwidth. We show that the proposed DoS problem is undecidable in general and is PSPACE-complete for the class of resource-bounded, balanced systems. Finally, we implemented our formal verification model in the rewriting logic tool Maude and analyzed a number of DoS attacks in Maude using Rewriting Modulo SMT in an automated fashion. Abraão Aires Urquiza, Musab AlTurki, Max I. Kanovich, Tajana Ban Kirigin, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov, Carolyn L. Talcott |
CSF | 5 |
| 2019 | Formal Security Verification of Industry 4.0 ApplicationsabstractWithout appropriate counter-measures, cyber-attacks can exploit the increased system connectivity provided by Industry 4.0 (I4.0) to cause catastrophic events, by, e.g., injecting or tampering with messages. The solution supported by standards, such as, OPC-UA, is to sign or encrypt messages. However, given the limited resources of devices, instead of encrypting all messages in the network, it is better to encrypt only the messages that if tampered with or injected, could lead to undesired configurations. This paper describes the use of formal verification to analyse the security of I4.0 applications. We formalize in Rewriting Logic, I4.0 applications and systems, i.e., networked sets of devices, and a symbolic intruder model. Our formalization can be executed by the tool Maude to automate such security analysis, e.g., determine which messages are sufficient to sign in order avoid injection and tampering attacks. Vivek Nigam, Carolyn L. Talcott |
ETFA | 1 |
| 2019 | TSNSCHED: Automated Schedule Generation for Time Sensitive NetworkingabstractTime Sensitive Networking (TSN) is a set of standards enabling high performance deterministic communication using different scheduling mechanisms. Due to the size of industrial networks, configuring TSN networks is challenging to be done manually. We present TSNsched, a tool for automatic generation of schedules for TSN. TSNsched takes as input the logical topology of a network, expressed as flows, and outputs schedules for TSN switches using an SMT-solver. The generated schedule guarantees the desired network performance (specified in terms of latency and jitter), if such schedules exist. TSNsched can synthesize IEEE 802.1Qbv schedules and supports unicast and multicast flows, such as, in Publish/Subscribe networks. TSNsched can be run as a standalone tool and also allows rapid prototyping with the available JAVA API. We evaluate TSNsched on a number of realistic-size network topologies. TSNsched can generate high performance schedules, with average latency less than 1000μs, and average jitter less than 20μs, for TSN networks, with up to 73 subscribers and up to 10 multicast flows. Aellison Cassimiro T. dos Santos, Ben Schneider, Vivek Nigam |
FMCAD | 3 |
| 2019 | Subexponentials in non-commutative linear logicabstractLinear logical frameworks with subexponentials have been used for the specification of, among other systems, proof systems, concurrent programming languages and linear authorisation logics. In these frameworks, subexponentials can be configured to allow or not for the application of the contraction and weakening rules while the exchange rule can always be applied. This means that formulae in such frameworks can only be organised as sets and multisets of formulae not being possible to organise formulae as lists of formulae. This paper investigates the proof theory of linear logic proof systems in the non-commutative variant. These systems can disallow the application of exchange rule on some subexponentials. We investigate conditions for when cut elimination is admissible in the presence of non-commutative subexponentials, investigating the interaction of the exchange rule with the local and non-local contraction rules. We also obtain some new undecidability and decidability results on non-commutative linear logic with subexponentials. Max I. Kanovich, Stepan L. Kuznetsov, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov |
Math. Struct. Comput. Sci. | 3 |
| 2019 | Logical and Semantic Frameworks with Applications
Vivek Nigam, René Thiemann |
Theor. Comput. Sci. | 1 |
| 2018 | Formal Analysis of Sneak-Peek: A Data Centre Attack and Its Mitigations
Wei Chen 0023, Yuhui Lin, Vashti Galpin, Vivek Nigam, Myungjin Lee, David Aspinall 0001 |
SEC | 4 |
| 2018 | Proof-Relevant Logical Relations for Name Generation
Nick Benton, Martin Hofmann 0001, Vivek Nigam |
Log. Methods Comput. Sci. | 3 |
| 2018 | Effect-dependent transformations for concurrent programs
Nick Benton, Martin Hofmann 0001, Vivek Nigam |
Sci. Comput. Program. | 3 |
| 2017 | Slow TCAM Exhaustion DDoS Attack
Túlio A. Pascoal, Yuri Gil Dantas, Iguatemi E. Fonseca, Vivek Nigam |
SEC | 4 |
| 2017 | Time, computational complexity, and probability in the analysis of distance-bounding protocolsabstractMany security protocols rely on the assumptions on the physical properties in which its protocol sessions will be carried out. For instance, Distance Bounding Protocols take into account the round trip time of messages and the transmission velocity to infer an upper bound of the distance between tw o agents. We classify such security protocols as Cyber-Physical. Time plays a key role in design and analysis of many of these protocols. This paper investigates the foundational differences and the impacts on the analysis when using models with discrete time and models with dense time. We show that there are attacks that can be found by models using dense time, but not when using discrete time. We illustrate this with an attack that can be carried out on most Distance Bounding Protocols. In this attack, one exploits the execution delay of instructions during one clock cycle to convince a verifier that he is in a location different from his actual position. We additionally present a probabilistic analysis of this novel attack. As a formal model for representing and analyzing Cyber-Physical properties, we propose a Multiset Rewriting model with dense time suitable for specifying cyber-physical security protocols. We introduce Circle-Configurations and show that they can be used to symbolically solve the reachability problem for our model, and show that for the important class of balanced theories the reachability problem is PSPACE-complete. We also show how our model can be implemented using the computational rewriting tool Maude, the machinery that automatically searches for such attacks. Max I. Kanovich, Tajana Ban Kirigin, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov, Carolyn L. Talcott |
J. Comput. Secur. | 3 |
| 2017 | A rewriting framework and logic for activities subject to regulationsabstractActivities such as clinical investigations (CIs) or financial processes are subject to regulations to ensure quality of results and avoid negative consequences. Regulations may be imposed by multiple governmental agencies as well as by institutional policies and protocols. Due to the complexity of both regulations and activities, there is great potential for violation due to human error, misunderstanding, or even intent. Executable formal models of regulations, protocols and activities can form the foundation for automated assistants to aid planning, monitoring and compliance checking. We propose a model based on multiset rewriting where time is discrete and is specified by timestamps attached to facts. Actions, as well as initial, goal and critical states may be constrained by means of relative time constraints. Moreover, actions may have non-deterministic effects, i.e. they may have different outcomes whenever applied. We present a formal semantics of our model based on focused proofs of linear logic with definitions. We also determine the computational complexity of various planning problems. Plan compliance problem, for example, is the problem of finding a plan that leads from an initial state to a desired goal state without reaching any undesired critical state. We consider all actions to be balanced, i.e. their pre- and post-conditions have the same number of facts. Under this assumption on actions, we show that the plan compliance problem is PSPACE-complete when all actions have only deterministic effects and is EXPTIME-complete when actions may have non-deterministic effects. Finally, we show that the restrictions on the form of actions and time constraints taken in the specification of our model are necessary for decidability of the planning problems. Max I. Kanovich, Tajana Ban Kirigin, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov, Carolyn L. Talcott, Ranko Perovic |
Math. Struct. Comput. Sci. | 3 |
| 2017 | On subexponentials, focusing and modalities in concurrent systems
Vivek Nigam, Carlos Olarte, Elaine Pimentel |
Theor. Comput. Sci. | 1 |
| 2016 | Towards the Automated Verification of Cyber-Physical Security Protocols: Bounding the Number of Timed Intruders
Vivek Nigam, Carolyn L. Talcott, Abraão Aires Urquiza |
ESORICS (2) | 1 |
| 2016 | Effect-dependent transformations for concurrent programsabstractWe describe a denotational semantics for an abstract effect system for a higher-order, shared-variable concurrent language. The semantics validates general effect-based program equivalences, including sufficient conditions for replacing sequential composition with parallel composition. Effect annotations refer to abstract locations, specified by contracts, rather than physical footprints, allowing us to also show soundness of some transformations involving fine-grained concurrent data structures, such as Michael-Scott queues. Nick Benton, Martin Hofmann 0001, Vivek Nigam |
PPDP | 3 |
| 2016 | An extended framework for specifying and reasoning about proof systemsabstractIt has been shown that linear logic can be successfully used as a framework for both specifying proof systems for a number of logics, as well as proving fundamental properties about the specified systems. This article shows how to extend the framework with subexponentials in order to declaratively encode a wider range of proof systems, including a number of non-trivial proof systems such as multi-conclusion intuitionistic logic, classical modal logic S4, intuitionistic Lax logic, and Negri's labelled proof systems for different modal logics. Moreover, we propose methods for checking whether an encoded proof system has important properties, such as if it admits cut-elimination, the completeness of atomic identity rules, and the invertibility of its inference rules. Finally, we present a tool implementing some of these specification/verification methods. Vivek Nigam, Elaine Pimentel, Giselle Reis |
J. Log. Comput. | 1 |
| 2015 | Subexponential concurrent constraint programming
Carlos Olarte, Elaine Pimentel, Vivek Nigam |
Theor. Comput. Sci. | 3 |
| 2014 | Abstract effects and proof-relevant logical relationsabstractWe give a denotational semantics for a region-based effect system that supports type abstraction in the sense that only externally visible effects need to be tracked: non-observable internal modifications, such as the reorganisation of a search tree or lazy initialisation, can count as 'pure' or 'read only'. This 'fictional purity' allows clients of a module to validate soundly more effect-based program equivalences than would be possible with previous semantics. Our semantics uses a novel variant of logical relations that maps types not merely to partial equivalence relations on values, as is commonly done, but rather to a proof-relevant generalisation thereof, namely setoids. The objects of a setoid establish that values inhabit semantic types, whilst its morphisms are understood as proofs of semantic equivalence. The transition to proof-relevance solves twoawkward problems caused by naïve use of existential quantification in Kripke logical relations, namely failure of admissibility and spurious functional dependencies. Nick Benton, Martin Hofmann 0001, Vivek Nigam |
POPL | 3 |
| 2014 | Bounded memory protocols
Max I. Kanovich, Tajana Ban Kirigin, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov |
Comput. Lang. Syst. Struct. | 3 |
| 2014 | Bounded memory Dolev-Yao adversaries in collaborative systems
Max I. Kanovich, Tajana Ban Kirigin, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov |
Inf. Comput. | 3 |
| 2014 | A framework for linear authorization logics
Vivek Nigam |
Theor. Comput. Sci. | 1 |
| 2014 | A Proof Theoretic Study of Soft Concurrent Constraint ProgrammingabstractAbstract Concurrent Constraint Programming (CCP) is a simple and powerful model for concurrency where agents interact by telling and asking constraints. Since their inception, CCP-languages have been designed for having a strong connection to logic. In fact, the underlying constraint system can be built from a suitable fragment of intuitionistic (linear) logic -ILL- and processes can be interpreted as formulas in ILL. Constraints as ILL formulas fail to represent accurately situations where “preferences” (called soft constraints) such as probabilities, uncertainty or fuzziness are present. In order to circumvent this problem, c-semirings have been proposed as algebraic structures for defining constraint systems where agents are allowed to tell and ask soft constraints. Nevertheless, in this case, the tight connection to logic and proof theory is lost. In this work, we give a proof theoretical meaning to soft constraints: they can be defined as formulas in a suitable fragment of ILL with subexponentials (SELL) where subexponentials, ordered in a c-semiring structure, are interpreted as preferences. We hence achieve two goals: (1) obtain a CCP language where agents can tell and ask soft constraints and (2) prove that the language in (1) has a strong connection with logic. Hence we keep a declarative reading of processes as formulas while providing a logical framework for soft-CCP based systems. An interesting side effect of (1) is that one is also able to handle probabilities (and other modalities) in SELL, by restricting the use of the promotion rule for non-idempotent c-semirings.This finer way of controlling subexponentials allows for considering more interesting spaces and restrictions, and it opens the possibility of specifying more challenging computational systems. Elaine Pimentel, Carlos Olarte, Vivek Nigam |
Theory Pract. Log. Program. | 3 |
| 2013 | A General Proof System for Modalities in Concurrent Constraint Programming
Vivek Nigam, Carlos Olarte, Elaine Pimentel |
CONCUR | 1 |
| 2013 | Bounded Memory Protocols and Progressing Collaborative Systems
Max I. Kanovich, Tajana Ban Kirigin, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov |
ESORICS | 3 |
| 2013 | Checking Proof Transformations with ASP
Vivek Nigam, Giselle Reis, Leonardo Lima 0001 |
Theory Pract. Log. Program. | 1 |
| 2012 | On the Complexity of Linear Authorization LogicsabstractLinear authorization logics (LAL) are logics based on linear logic that can be used for modeling effect-based authentication policies. LAL has been used in the context of the Proof-Carrying Authorization framework, where formal proofs are constructed in order for a principal to gain access to some resource elsewhere. This paper investigates the complexity of the provability problem, that is, determining whether a linear authorization logic formula is provable or not. We show that the multiplicative propositional fragment of LAL is already undecidable in the presence of two principals. On the other hand, we also identify a first-order fragment of LAL for which provability is PSPACE-complete. Finally, we argue by example that the latter fragment is natural and can be used in practice. Vivek Nigam |
LICS | 1 |
| 2012 | A Rewriting Framework for Activities Subject to RegulationsabstractActivities such as clinical investigations or financial processes are subject to regulations to ensure quality of results and avoid negative consequences. Regulations may be imposed by multiple governmental agencies as well as by institutional policies and protocols. Due to the complexity of both regulations and activities there is great potential for violation due to human error, misunderstanding, or even intent. Executable formal models of regulations, protocols, and activities can form the foundation for automated assistants to aid planning, monitoring, and compliance checking. We propose a model based on multiset rewriting where time is discrete and is specified by timestamps attached to facts. Actions, as well as initial, goal and critical states may be constrained by means of relative time constraints. Moreover, actions may have non-deterministic effects, that is, they may have different outcomes whenever applied. We demonstrate how specifications in our model can be straightforwardly mapped to the rewriting logic language Maude, and how one can use existing techniques to improve performance. Finally, we also determine the complexity of the plan compliance problem, that is, finding a plan that leads from an initial state to a desired goal state without reaching any undesired critical state. We consider all actions to be balanced, that is, their pre and post-conditions have the same number of facts. Under this assumption on actions, we show that the plan compliance problem is PSPACE-complete when all actions have only deterministic effects and is EXPTIME-complete when actions may have non-deterministic effects. Max I. Kanovich, Tajana Ban Kirigin, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov, Carolyn L. Talcott, Ranko Perovic |
RTA | 3 |
| 2012 | Maintaining distributed logic programs incrementally
Vivek Nigam, Limin Jia 0001, Boon Thau Loo, Andre Scedrov |
Comput. Lang. Syst. Struct. | 1 |
| 2012 | FSR: formal analysis and implementation toolkit for safe interdomain routingabstractInterdomain routing stitches the disparate parts of the Internet together, making protocol stability a critical issue to both researchers and practitioners. Yet, researchers create safety proofs and counterexamples by hand and build simulators and prototypes to explore protocol dynamics. Similarly, network operators analyze their router configurations manually or using homegrown tools. In this paper, we present a comprehensive toolkit for analyzing and implementing routing policies, ranging from high-level guidelines to specific router configurations. Our Formally Safe Routing (FSR) toolkit performs all of these functions from the same algebraic representation of routing policy. We show that routing algebra has a natural translation to both integer constraints (to perform safety analysis with SMT solvers) and declarative programs (to generate distributed implementations). Our extensive experiments with realistic topologies and policies show how FSR can detect problems in an autonomous system's (AS's) iBGP configuration, prove sufficient conditions for Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) safety, and empirically evaluate convergence time. Anduo Wang, Limin Jia 0001, Wenchao Zhou, Yiqing Ren, Boon Thau Loo, Jennifer Rexford, Vivek Nigam, Andre Scedrov, Carolyn L. Talcott |
IEEE/ACM Trans. Netw. | 7 |
| 2011 | Maintaining distributed logic programs incrementallyabstractDistributed logic programming languages, that allow both facts and programs to be distributed among different nodes in a network, have been recently proposed and used to declaratively program a wide-range of distributed systems, such as network protocols and multi-agent systems. However, the distributed nature of the underlying systems poses serious challenges to developing efficient and correct algorithms for evaluating these programs. This paper proposes an efficient asynchronous algorithm to compute incrementally the changes to the states in response to insertions and deletions of base facts. Our algorithm is formally proven to be correct in the presence of message reordering in the system. To our knowledge, this is the first formal proof of correctness for such an algorithm. Vivek Nigam, Limin Jia 0001, Boon Thau Loo, Andre Scedrov |
PPDP | 1 |
| 2010 | A Framework for Proof Systems
Vivek Nigam, Dale Miller 0001 |
J. Autom. Reason. | 1 |
| 2009 | Algorithmic specifications in linear logic with subexponentialsabstractThe linear logic exponentials !,? are not canonical: one can add to linear logic other such operators, say !l,?1, which may or may not allow contraction and weakening, and where l is from some pre-ordered set of labels. We shall call these additional operators subexponentials and use them to assign locations to multisets of formulas within a linear logic programming setting. Treating locations as subexponentials greatly increases the algorithmic expressiveness of logic. To illustrate this new expressiveness, we show that focused proof search can be precisely linked to a simple algorithmic specification language that contains while-loops, conditionals, and insertion into and deletion from multisets. We also give some general conditions for when a focused proof step can be executed in constant time. In addition, we propose a new logical connective that allows for the creation of new subexponentials, thereby further augmenting the algorithmic expressiveness of logic. Vivek Nigam, Dale Miller 0001 |
PPDP | 1 |
| 2006 | Compound noise analysis in digital circuits using blind source separationabstractIn the past decade there have been significant efforts to analyze and solve signal integrity issues in pre-nanometer circuits. However, most of these techniques apply to single noise source, and cannot take into account the evolving reality of multiple noise sources interacting with each other. With the scaling of the technology into nanometer regime, maintaining historical rate of performance and signal integrity have become very challenging due to compound noise effects. Noise measurement made at an evaluation node will reflect the cumulative effect of all the active noise sources, while individual and relative severity of various noise sources will determine what types of remedial steps can be adopted, pressing the need for the development of algorithms that study the cumulative noise effects, and analyze the relative contributions of different noise sources. This paper presents a novel method to analyze the characteristics of compound noise effect in very high performance integrated circuits. The algorithm extracts the time characteristics of individual noise sources from the measured voltage in order to study the contribution of each source separately, by applying the technique of blind source separation, which is based on the assumption that the different sources of noise are statistically independent over time. The estimated noise sources can aid in timing and spectral analysis and yield better design techniques Vivek Nigam, Masud H. Chowdhury, Roland Priemer |
ISCAS | 1 |
| 2006 | Fuzzy logic based variable step size algorithm for blind delayed source separation
Vivek Nigam, Roland Priemer |
Fuzzy Sets Syst. | 1 |