arXiv subjects

Tomáš Masopust

Publications and source records attributed to Tomáš Masopust.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Separability by Piecewise Testable Languages is PTime-Complete

Piecewise testable languages form the first level of the Straubing-Thérien hierarchy. The membership problem for this level is decidable and testing if the language of a DFA is piecewise testable is NL-complete. The question has not yet been addressed for NFAs. We fill in this gap by showing that it is PSpace-complete. The main result is then the lower-bound complexity of separability of regular languages by piecewise testable languages. Two regular languages are separable by a piecewise testable language if the piecewise testable language includes one of them and is disjoint from the other. For languages represented by NFAs, separability by piecewise testable languages is known to be decidable in PTime. We show that it is PTime-hard and that it remains PTime-hard even for minimal DFAs.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2017

Complexity of Detectability, Opacity and A-Diagnosability for Modular Discrete Event Systems

We study the complexity of deciding whether a modular discrete event system is detectable (resp. opaque, A-diagnosable). Detectability arises in the state estimation of discrete event systems, opacity is related to the privacy and security analysis, and A-diagnosability appears in the fault diagnosis of stochastic discrete event systems. Previously, deciding weak detectability (opacity, A-diagnosability) for monolithic systems was shown to be PSPACE-complete. In this paper, we study the complexity of deciding weak detectability (opacity, A-diagnosability) for modular systems. We show that the complexities of these problems are significantly worse than in the monolithic case. Namely, we show that deciding modular weak detectability (opacity, A-diagnosability) is EXPSPACE-complete. We further discuss a special case where all unobservable events are private, and show that in this case the problems are PSPACE-complete. Consequently, if the systems are all fully observable, then deciding weak detectability (opacity) for modular systems is PSPACE-complete.

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arXiv2017

Complexity of Deciding Detectability in Discrete Event Systems

Detectability of discrete event systems (DESs) is a question whether the current and subsequent states can be determined based on observations. Shu and Lin designed a polynomial-time algorithm to check strong (periodic) detectability and an exponential-time (polynomial-space) algorithm to check weak (periodic) detectability. Zhang showed that checking weak (periodic) detectability is PSpace-complete. This intractable complexity opens a question whether there are structurally simpler DESs for which the problem is tractable. In this paper, we show that it is not the case by considering DESs represented as deterministic finite automata without non-trivial cycles, which are structurally the simplest deadlock-free DESs. We show that even for such very simple DESs, checking weak (periodic) detectability remains intractable. On the contrary, we show that strong (periodic) detectability of DESs can be efficiently verified on a parallel computer.

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arXiv2017

Complexity of Universality and Related Problems for Partially Ordered NFAs

Partially ordered nondeterminsitic finite automata (poNFAs) are NFAs whose transition relation induces a partial order on states, that is, for which cycles occur only in the form of self-loops on a single state. A poNFA is universal if it accepts all words over its input alphabet. Deciding universality is PSPACE-complete for poNFAs, and we show that this remains true even when restricting to a fixed alphabet. This is nontrivial since standard encodings of alphabet symbols in, e.g., binary can turn self-loops into longer cycles. A lower coNP-complete complexity bound can be obtained if we require that all self-loops in the poNFA are deterministic, in the sense that the symbol read in the loop cannot occur in any other transition from that state. We find that such restricted poNFAs (rpoNFAs) characterise the class of $\mathcal{R}$-trivial languages, and we establish the complexity of deciding if the language of an NFA is $\mathcal{R}$-trivial. Nevertheless, the limitation to fixed alphabets turns out to be essential even in the restricted case: deciding universality of rpoNFAs with unbounded alphabets is PSPACE-complete. Based on a close relation between universality and the problems of inclusion and equivalence, we also obtain the complexity results for these two problems. Finaly, we show that the languages of rpoNFAs are definable by deterministic (one-unambiguous) regular expressions, which makes them interesting in schema languages for XML data.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2017

On the Height of Towers of Subsequences and Prefixes

A tower is a sequence of words alternating between two languages in such a way that every word is a subsequence of the following word. The height of the tower is the number of words in the sequence. If there is no infinite tower (a tower of infinite height), then the height of all towers between the languages is bounded. We study upper and lower bounds on the height of maximal finite towers with respect to the size of the NFA (the DFA) representation of the languages. We show that the upper bound is polynomial in the number of states and exponential in the size of the alphabet, and that it is asymptotically tight if the size of the alphabet is fixed. If the alphabet may grow, then, using an alphabet of size approximately the number of states of the automata, the lower bound on the height of towers is exponential with respect to that number. In this case, there is a gap between the lower and upper bound, and the asymptotically optimal bound remains an open problem. Since, in many cases, the constructed towers are sequences of prefixes, we also study towers of prefixes.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2017

Universality of Confluent, Self-Loop Deterministic Partially Ordered NFAs is Hard

An automaton is partially ordered if the only cycles in its transition diagram are self-loops. The expressivity of partially ordered NFAs (poNFAs) can be characterized by the Straubing-Thérien hierarchy. Level 3/2 is recognized by poNFAs, level 1 by confluent, self-loop deterministic poNFAs as well as by confluent poDFAs, and level 1/2 by saturated poNFAs. We study the universality problem for confluent, self-loop deterministic poNFAs. It asks whether an automaton accepts all words over its alphabet. Universality for both NFAs and poNFAs is a PSpace-complete problem. For confluent, self-loop deterministic poNFAs, the complexity drops to coNP-complete if the alphabet is fixed but is open if the alphabet may grow. We solve this problem by showing that it is PSpace-complete if the alphabet may grow polynomially. Consequently, our result provides a lower-bound complexity for some other problems, including inclusion, equivalence, and $k$-piecewise testability. Since universality for saturated poNFAs is easy, confluent, self-loop deterministic poNFAs are the simplest and natural kind of NFAs characterizing a well-known class of languages, for which deciding universality is as difficult as for general NFAs.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2017

Complexity of Verifying Nonblockingness in Modular Supervisory Control

Complexity analysis becomes a common task in supervisory control. However, many results of interest are spread across different topics. The aim of this paper is to bring several interesting results from complexity theory and to illustrate their relevance to supervisory control by proving new nontrivial results concerning nonblockingness in modular supervisory control of discrete event systems modeled by finite automata.

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arXiv2017

Complexity of Infimal Observable Superlanguages

The infimal prefix-closed, controllable and observable superlanguage plays an essential role in the relationship between controllability, observability and co-observability -- the central notions of supervisory control theory. Existing algorithms for its computation are exponential and it is not known whether a polynomial algorithm exists. In this paper, we study the state complexity of this language. State complexity of a language is the number of states of the minimal DFA for the language. For a language of state complexity $n$, we show that the upper-bound state complexity on the infimal prefix-closed and observable superlanguage is $2^n + 1$ and that this bound is asymptotically tight. It proves that there is no algorithm computing a DFA of the infimal prefix-closed and observable superlanguage in polynomial time. Our construction further shows that such a DFA can be computed in time $O(2^n)$. The construction involves NFAs and a computation of the supremal prefix-closed sublanguage. We study the computation of the supremal prefix-closed sublanguage and show that there is no polynomial-time algorithm that computes an NFA of the supremal prefix-closed sublanguage of a language given as an NFA even if the language is unary.

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arXiv2017

Computation of Controllable and Coobservable Sublanguages in Decentralized Supervisory Control via Communication

In decentralized supervisory control, several local supervisors cooperate to accomplish a common goal (specification). Controllability and coobservability are the key conditions to achieve a specification in the controlled system. We construct a controllable and coobservable sublanguage of the specification by using additional communications between supervisors. Namely, we extend observable events of local supervisors via communication and apply a fully decentralized computation of local supervisors. Coobservability is then guaranteed by construction. Sufficient conditions to achieve the centralized optimal solution are discussed. Our approach can be used for both prefix-closed and non-prefix-closed specifications.

math.OC↗

arXiv2016

On a Distributed Computation of Supervisors in Modular Supervisory Control

In this paper, we discuss a supervisory control problem of modular discrete-event systems that allows for a distributed computation of supervisors. We provide a characterization and an algorithm to compute the supervisors. If the specification does not satisfy the properties, we make use of a relaxation of coordination control to compute a sublanguage of the specification for which the supervisors can be computed in a distributed way.

math.OC↗

arXiv2016

Piecewise Testable Languages and Nondeterministic Automata

A regular language is $k$-piecewise testable if it is a finite boolean combination of languages of the form $Σ^* a_1 Σ^* \cdots Σ^* a_n Σ^*$, where $a_i\inΣ$ and $0\le n \le k$. Given a DFA $A$ and $k\ge 0$, it is an NL-complete problem to decide whether the language $L(A)$ is piecewise testable and, for $k\ge 4$, it is coNP-complete to decide whether the language $L(A)$ is $k$-piecewise testable. It is known that the depth of the minimal DFA serves as an upper bound on $k$. Namely, if $L(A)$ is piecewise testable, then it is $k$-piecewise testable for $k$ equal to the depth of $A$. In this paper, we show that some form of nondeterminism does not violate this upper bound result. Specifically, we define a class of NFAs, called ptNFAs, that recognize piecewise testable languages and show that the depth of a ptNFA provides an (up to exponentially better) upper bound on $k$ than the minimal DFA. We provide an application of our result, discuss the relationship between $k$-piecewise testability and the depth of NFAs, and study the complexity of $k$-piecewise testability for ptNFAs.

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arXiv2015

Alternating Towers and Piecewise Testable Separators

Two languages are separable by a piecewise testable language if and only if there exists no infinite tower between them. An infinite tower is an infinite sequence of strings alternating between the two languages such that every string is a subsequence (scattered substring) of all the strings that follow. For regular languages represented by nondeterministic finite automata, the existence of an infinite tower is decidable in polynomial time. In this paper, we investigate the complexity of a particular method to compute a piecewise testable separator. We show that it is closely related to the height of maximal finite towers, and provide the upper and lower bounds with respect to the size of the given nondeterministic automata. Specifically, we show that the upper bound is polynomial with respect to the number of states with the cardinality of the alphabet in the exponent. Concerning the lower bound, we show that towers of exponential height with respect to the cardinality of the alphabet exist. Since these towers mostly turn out to be sequences of prefixes, we also provide a comparison with towers of prefixes.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2015

On $k$-piecewise testability (preliminary report)

For a non-negative integer $k$, a language is $k$-piecewise test\-able ($k$-PT) if it is a finite boolean combination of languages of the form $Σ^* a_1 Σ^* \cdots Σ^* a_n Σ^*$ for $a_i\inΣ$ and $0\le n \le k$. We study the following problem: Given a DFA recognizing a piecewise testable language, decide whether the language is $k$-PT. We provide a complexity bound and a detailed analysis for small $k$'s. The result can be used to find the minimal $k$ for which the language is $k$-PT. We show that the upper bound on $k$ given by the depth of the minimal DFA can be exponentially bigger than the minimal possible $k$, and provide a tight upper bound on the depth of the minimal DFA recognizing a $k$-PT language.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2015

Combined Top-down and Bottom-up Approach to Multilevel Supervisory Control

Recently, we have proposed two complementary approaches, top-down and bottom-up, to multilevel supervisory control of discrete-event systems. In this paper, we compare and combine these approaches. The combined approach has strong features of both approaches, namely, a lower complexity of the top-down approach with the generality of the bottom-up approach. We show that, for prefix-closed languages, a posteriori supervisors computed in the bottom-up manner do not alter maximal permissiveness within the three-level coordination control architecture, that is, the supremal three-level conditionally-controllable and conditionally-normal language can always be computed in a distributed way using multilevel coordination. Moreover, a general polynomial-time procedure for non-prefix closed case is proposed based on coordinators for nonblockingness and a posteriori supervisors.

math.OC↗

arXiv2015

A Relaxed Framework for Coordination Control of Discrete-Event Systems

In this paper, we simplify the coordination control approach by removing the supervisor for the coordinator from the closed-loop system and relax the restrictions placed on a coordinator. This relaxation results in the simplification of the whole coordination control framework, including the notions of conditional controllability, conditional observability, and conditional normality. Compared to our previous work, the role of the supervisor on a coordinator alphabet is postponed until the final stage of the coordination control synthesis. This completes and clarifies our previous results, while all the fundamental theorems remain valid in the relaxed framework. Unlike previous approaches we can always compute a conditionally controllable sublanguage without any restricting conditions we have used before.

math.OC↗

arXiv2014

On Conditional Decomposability

The requirement of a language to be conditionally decomposable is imposed on a specification language in the coordination supervisory control framework of discrete-event systems. In this paper, we present a polynomial-time algorithm for the verification whether a language is conditionally decomposable with respect to given alphabets. Moreover, we also present a polynomial-time algorithm to extend the common alphabet so that the language becomes conditionally decomposable. A relationship of conditional decomposability to nonblockingness of modular discrete-event systems is also discussed in this paper in the general settings. It is shown that conditional decomposability is a weaker condition than nonblockingness.

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arXiv2014

On Upper and Lower Bounds on the Length of Alternating Towers

A tower between two regular languages is a sequence of strings such that all strings on odd positions belong to one of the languages, all strings on even positions belong to the other language, and each string can be embedded into the next string in the sequence. It is known that if there are towers of any length, then there also exists an infinite tower. We investigate upper and lower bounds on the length of finite towers between two regular languages with respect to the size of the automata representing the languages in the case there is no infinite tower. This problem is relevant to the separation problem of regular languages by piecewise testable languages.

cs.FL↗

arXiv2014

A Note on Relative Observability in Coordination Control

Relative observability has been introduced and studied in the framework of partially observed discrete-event systems as a condition stronger than observability, but weaker than normality. However, unlike observability, relative observability is closed under language unions, which makes it interesting for practical applications. In this paper, we investigate this notion in the framework of coordination control. We prove that conditional normality is a stronger condition than conditional (strong) relative observability, hence conditional strong relative observability can be used in coordination control instead of conditional normality, and present a distributive procedure for the computation of a conditionally controllable and conditionally observable sublanguage of the specification that contains the supremal conditionally strong relative observable sublanguage.

math.OC↗