Logical Specification and Analysis of Fault Tolerant Systems through Partial Model Checking

This paper presents a framework for a logical characterisation of fault tolerance and its formal analysis based on partial model checking techniques. The framework requires a fault tolerant system to be modelled using a formal calculus, here the CCS process algebra. To this aim we propose a uniform modelling scheme in which to specify a formal model of the system, its failing behaviour and possibly its fault-recovering procedures. Once a formal model is provided into our scheme, fault tolerance - with respect to a given property - can be formalized as an equational µ-calculus formula. This formula expresses in a logic formalism, all the fault scenarios satisfying that fault tolerance property. Such a characterisation understands the analysis of fault tolerance as a form of analysis of open systems and thank to partial model checking strategies, it can be made independent on any particular fault assumption. Moreover this logical characterisation makes possible the fault-tolerance verification problem be expressed as a general µ-calculus validation problem, for solving which many theorem proof techniques and tools are available. We present several analysis methods showing the flexibility of our approach

Algorithms For Phylogeny Reconstruction In a New Mathematical Model

The evolutionary history of a set of species is represented by a tree called phylogenetic tree or phylogeny. Its structure depends on precise biological assumptions about the evolution of species. Problems related to phylogeny reconstruction (i.e., finding a tree representation of information regarding a set of items) are widely studied in computer science. Most of these problems have found to be NP-hard. Sometimes they can solved polynomially if appropriate restrictions on the structure of the tree are fixed. This paper summarizes the most recent problems and results in phylogeny reconstruction, and introduces an innovative tree model, called Phylogenetic Parsimonious Tree, which is justified by significant biological hypothesis. Using PPT two problems are studied: the existence and the reconstruction of a tree both when sequences of characters and partial order on interspecies distances are given. We rove complexity results that confirm the hardness of this class of problems

Team automata for security analysis

We show that team automata (TA) are well suited for security analysis by reformulating the Generalized Non-Deducibility on Compositions (GNDC) schema in terms of TA. We then use this to show that integrity is guaranteed for a case study in which TA model an instance of the Efficient Multi-chained Stream Signature (EMSS) protocol

The Audit Logic: Policy Compliance in Distributed Systems

We present a distributed framework where agents can share data along with usage policies. We use an expressive policy language including conditions, obligations and delegation. Our framework also supports the possibility to refine policies. Policies are not enforced a-priori. Instead policy compliance is checked using an a-posteriri auditing approach. Policy compliance is shown by a (logical) proof that the authority can systematically check for validity. Tools for automatically checking and generating proofs are also part of the framework.\u

Privacy-Preserving Verifiability: A Case for an Electronic Exam Protocol

We introduce the notion of privacy-preserving verifiability for security protocols. It holds when a protocol admits a verifiability test that does not reveal, to the verifier that runs it, more pieces of information about the protocol’s execution than those required to run the test. Our definition of privacy-preserving verifiability is general and applies to cryptographic protocols as well as to human security protocols. In this paper we exemplify it in the domain of e-exams. We prove that the notion is meaningful by studying an existing exam protocol that is verifiable but whose verifiability tests are not privacy-preserving. We prove that the notion is applicable: we review the protocol using functional encryption so that it admits a verifiability test that preserves privacy to our definition. We analyse, in ProVerif, that the verifiability holds despite malicious parties and that the new protocol maintains all the security properties of the original protocol, so proving that our privacy-preserving verifiability can be achieved starting from existing security

Frequency conversion between UV and telecom wavelengths in a lithium niobate waveguide for quantum communication with Yb+ trapped ions

We study and demonstrate the frequency conversion of UV radiation, resonant with 369.5 nm transition in Yb+ ions to the C-band wavelength 1580.3 nm and vice-versa using a reverse proton-exchanged waveguide in periodically poled lithium niobate. Our integrated device can interface trapped Yb+ ions with telecom infrastructure for the realization of an Yb+ based quantum repeater protocol and to efficiently distribute entanglement over long distances. We analyse the single photon frequency conversion efficiency from the 369.525 nm to the telecom wavelength and its dependence on pump power, device length and temperature. The single-photon noise generated by spontaneous Raman scattering of the pump is also measured. From this analysis we estimate a single photon conversion efficiency of 9% is achievable with our technology with almost complete suppression of the Raman noise.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Analysis of communication systems with timed token protocols using the power-series algorithm

The IEEE 802.4 and FDDI (Fibre Distributed Data Interface) standards are high speed MAC (Medium Access Control) protocols for LAN/MANs employing a timer-controlled token passing mechanism, the so-called Timed Token Protocol, to control station access to the shared media. These protocols support synchronous and real-time (i.e., time-critical) applications, and provide priority among asynchronous (i.e., non time-critical) applications. During the last few years, much research has focused on the study of timed token protocols, to obtain performance measures such as throughputs or mean waiting times. The recent development of the Power-Series Algorithm (PSA) has opened new perspectives in the analysis of this class of protocols. This paper shows the versatility of the PSA technique when evaluating the station buffer occupancy and delay distributions of a very general model that can be used to represent the behavior of several LAN/MANs MAC protocols, among which the timed token MAC protocols. Specifically, the focus of the paper is on the solution of an almost exact model of the IEEE 802.4 MAC protocol. Since the model we propose and solve numerically by exploiting the PSA technique, is an approximate model of the FDDI MAC protocol, the paper also reports on a comparison between performance measures obtained for this model and simulation results for the corresponding exact model of FDDI