Abstract Interpretation of PEPA Models

Abstract

General rightsCopyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policyThe University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact openaccess@ed.ac.uk providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Abstract. This paper relates the fluid-flow semantics of the stochastic process algebra PEPA (Performance Evaluation Process Algebra) to the static analysis technique of abstract interpretation. The explanation in the paper is illustrated through the example of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack which is being launched against a server. DDoS attacks are mounted by a large population of attackers, who are coordinating and working together in attacking a specific server. The scale of the attack is crucial to its success, but the resulting large number of states in the system makes it difficult to model and analyse using the conventional discrete-state interpretation of PEPA.