Faster algorithms for quantitative verification in constant treewidth graphs

We consider the core algorithmic problems related to verification of systems with respect to three classical quantitative properties, namely, the mean-payoff property, the ratio property, and the minimum initial credit for energy property. The algorithmic problem given a graph and a quantitative property asks to compute the optimal value (the infimum value over all traces) from every node of the graph. We consider graphs with constant treewidth, and it is well-known that the control-flow graphs of most programs have constant treewidth. Let n denote the number of nodes of a graph, m the number of edges (for constant treewidth graphs m=O(n)) and W the largest absolute value of the weights. Our main theoretical results are as follows. First, for constant treewidth graphs we present an algorithm that approximates the mean-payoff value within a multiplicative factor of ϵ in time O(n⋅log(n/ϵ)) and linear space, as compared to the classical algorithms that require quadratic time. Second, for the ratio property we present an algorithm that for constant treewidth graphs works in time O(n⋅log(|a⋅b|))=O(n⋅log(n⋅W)), when the output is ab, as compared to the previously best known algorithm with running time O(n2⋅log(n⋅W)). Third, for the minimum initial credit problem we show that (i) for general graphs the problem can be solved in O(n2⋅m) time and the associated decision problem can be solved in O(n⋅m) time, improving the previous known O(n3⋅m⋅log(n⋅W)) and O(n2⋅m) bounds, respectively; and (ii) for constant treewidth graphs we present an algorithm that requires O(n⋅logn) time, improving the previous known O(n4⋅log(n⋅W)) bound. We have implemented some of our algorithms and show that they present a significant speedup on standard benchmarks.