A Genetic-Algorithms-Based Technique for Detecting Distributed Predicates

One of the techniques that have been used in the literature to enhance the dependability of distributed applications is the detection of distributed predicates techniques (also referred to as runtime verification). These techniques are used to verify that a given run of a distributed application satisfies certain properties (specified as predicates). Due to the existence of multiple processes running concurrently, the detection of a distributed predicate can incur significant overhead. Several researchers have worked on the development of techniques to reduce the cost of detecting distributed predicates. However, most of the techniques presented in the literature work efficiently for specific classes of predicates, like conjunctive predicates. This chapter presents a technique based on genetic algorithms to efficiently detect distributed predicates under the possibly modality. Several experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.