Mechanized Extraction of Topology Anti-patterns in Wireless Networks

Exhaustive and mechanized formal verification of wireless networks is hampered by the huge number of possible topologies and the large size of the actual networks. However, the generic communication structure in such networks allows for reducing the root causes of faults to faulty (sub-)topologies, called anti-patterns, of small size. We propose techniques to find such anti-patterns using a combination of model-checking and automated debugging. We apply the proposed technique on two well-known protocols for wireless sensor networks and show that the techniques indeed find the root causes in terms of canonical topologies featuring the fault. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.