Distributed verification with LoLA
We report work in progress on a distributed version of explicit state space generation in the Petri net verification tool LoLA. We propose a data structure where all available memory of all involved workstations can be fully exploited, and load balancing actions are possible at any time while the verification is running. It is even possible to extend the set of involved workstations while a verification is running.

title: How to calculate symmetries of Petri nets
abstract: Symmetric net structure yields symmetric net behaviour. Thus, knowing the symmetries of a net, redundant calculations can be skipped. We present a framework for the calculation of symmetries for several net classes including place/transition nets, timed nets, stochastic nets, self–modifying nets, nets with inhibitor arcs, and many others. Our approach allows the specification of different symmetry groups. Additionally it provides facilities either to calculate symmetries on demand while running the actual analysis algorithm, or to calculate them in advance. For the latter case we define and calculate a ground set of symmetries. Such a set has polynomial size and is sufficient for an efficient implementation of the for all symmetries loop and the partition of net elements into equivalence classes. These two constructions are the usual way to integrate symmetries into an analysis algorithm.

title: Model-Checking with Coverability Graphs
abstract: We show that several formulas of a temporal logic can be verified using the coverability graph of the underlying system. Of course, the procedure is not capable of verifying all formulae, since already the reachability problem for (unbounded) Petri nets is computationally hard. Thus, the procedure returns true, false, or unknown for a query. The formulae that can be verified cover most of the well known standard properties which have been listed in the context of coverability graph analysis so far.

title: LoLA: a low level analyser
abstract: With LoLA, we put recently developed state space oriented algorithms to other tool developers disposal. Providing a simple interface was a major design goal such that it is as easy as possible to integrate LoLA into tools of different application domains. LoLA supports place/transition nets. Implemented verification techniques cover standard properties (liveness, reversibility, boundedness, reachability, dead transitions, deadlocks, home states) as well as satisfiability of state predicates and CTL model checking. For satisfiability, both exhaustive search and heuristically goal oriented system execution are supported. For state space reduction, LoLA features symmetries, stubborn sets, and coverability graphs.

title: LoLA wird Pfadfinder.
abstract: LoLA ist ein erreichbarkeitsgraphbasiertes Werkzeug f ur Stellen/Transitions{Netze. Hier geht es um LoLAs Fahigkeit, erreichbare Zustande mit vorgegebenen Eigenschaften zu suchen und im Erfolgsfall einen solchen Zustand mit einem Weg von der Anfangsmarkierung dorthin anzugeben. Die Besonderheit besteht darin, da wahrend der Suche nur zwei Zustande gespeichert werden: der Anfangszustand und der aktuelle Zustand. Anstatt also den Zustandsraum systematisch zu durchmustern (und dabei meist am Speicherende zu scheitern), navigiert LoLA ohne Kenntnis der schon betretenen Zustande durch den Erreichbarkeitsgraph. Da sie trotzdem ihre Aufgabe erfolgreich lost, liegt an ihren spezi schen Fahigkeiten: Schnelligkeit, Bescheidenheit, Zielstrebigkeit, Neugier und Ausdauer.

title: Controllability of Open Workflow Nets.
abstract: An open workflow net is basically a workflow net extended with a message passing interface. Open workflow nets are adequate models for services or parts of inter-organizational business processes. We investigate the problem of controllability, a natural counterpart of soundness in classical workflow nets (as studied by van der Aalst). We distinguish centralized, distributed, and local controllability and provide solutions to all problems.

title: An Adaptive Storage Manager for XML Documents
abstract: Effective and efficient management and manipulation of XML documents requires stable decisions at the time a document enters the XML DBMS to provide for storage structures which are adjusted to the document characteristics and which reflect the future processing needs. While some of the critical parameters require a kind of pre-specification, others can be determined by pre-analysis or sampling of the incoming document or by just making experience-driven “educated guesses”. Important parameters are related to node labeling, path synopsis, document container layout, and indexing. In this paper, we discuss approaches to achieve an adaptive behavior of the storage manager to provide tailor-made native XML storage structures to the extent possible.

title: The promise of solid state disks: increasing efficiency and reducing cost of DBMS processing
abstract: Most database systems (DBMSs) today are operating on servers equipped with magnetic disks. In our contribution, we want to motivate the use of two emerging and striking technologies, namely native XML DBMSs (XDBMSs for short) and solid state disks. In this context, the traditional read/write model optimized by a sophisticated cache hierarchy and the IO cost model for databases needs adjustment. Such new devices together with optimized storage mapping of XML documents provide a number of challenging characteristics. We discuss howtheir optimization potential ca be exploited to enhance transactional DB performance under reduced energy consumption to match increasing application demands and, at the same time, to guarantee economic energy use in data centers.

title: Tailor-Made Native XML Storage Structures
abstract: Automatically choosing suitable native storage structures for XML doc- uments arriving at the XML DBMS is a challenging task for its storage manager. While some of the critical parameters require pre-specification, others can be deter- mined by pre-analysis or sampling of the incoming document or by just making ex- perience-driven "educated guesses". In this paper, we discuss approaches to achieve an adaptive behavior of the storage manager to provide tailor-made native XML stor- age structures to the extent possible. 1I ntroduction The XML data model allows for a great deal of modeling flexibility with which order, op- tional and multi-valued concepts, as well as deeply nested relationships can be captured. Therefore, the resulting tree structures of natively represented XML documents exhibit large variations in breadth and depth. Furthermore, XML documents may be data-centric having relatively little 'content' stored as short text values or they may be document-cen- tric where a single content node may contain huge portions of text, e.g., an entire book in a digital library. For these reasons, it is highly advisable to equip the storage manager with the ability to select reasonable or even optimal storage structures for documents. Furthermore, two cas- es have to be considered: a document sent by a client arrives at a time—the so-called block mode, i.e., the document can be pre-parsed and analyzed before a storage structure is cho- sen—or it arrives at the DBMS interface in stream mode where fragments present, due to their size, have to be allocated in a suitable storage structure on disk before the entire "streamed" document is available for the DBMS. In the latter case, the storage manager must decide—based on imprecise structural information—on the storage structure to be chosen and, at best, can make some educated guesses based on context or sampling infor- mation.

title: Benchmarking Performance-Critical Components in a Native XML Database System
abstract: The rapidly increasing number of XML-related applications indicates a growing need for efficient, dynamic, and native XML support in database management systems (XDBMS). So far, both industry and academia primarily focus on benchmarking of high-level performance figures for a variety of applications, queries, or documents --- frequently executed in artificial workload scenarios --- and, therefore, may analyze and compare only specific or incidental behavior of the underlying systems. To cover the full XDBMS support, it is mandatory to benchmark performance-critical components bottom-up, thereby removing bottlenecks and optimizing component behavior. In this way, wrong conclusions are avoided when new techniques such as tailored XML operators, index types, or storage mappings with unfamiliar performance characteristics are used. As an experience report, we present what we have learned from benchmarking a native XDBMS and recommend certain setups to do it in a systematic and meaningful way.

title: 
 Storing and indexing XML documents upside down

abstract: AbstractXML documents contain substantial redundancy in their structure part, because each path from the root
 node to a leaf node is explicitly represented and typically large sets of such path instances belong to
 a path class, i.e., the nodes of the path instances are labeled by the same sequence of element (or attribute)
 names. To save storage space and I/O cost, we want to get rid of this structural redundancy to the extent
 possible. While all known methods for the physical representation (storage) of XML documents proceed from
 the root via the element/attribute hierarchy (internal nodes) down to the leaves (values), we follow an
 upside-down approach which explicitly stores the values and only reconstructs
 the internal nodes, if needed. The cornerstones for such a solution are suitable node labels and a path
 synopsis which efficiently represents all path classes of an XML document. As a solution, we propose a compact
 internal storage format for native XML database systems where the inner structure of the stored documents
 is virtualized. Because this elementless storage format provides an efficient reconstruction of a document
 using its path synopsis, all processing properties are preserved and the semantics of navigational and declarative
 operations of XML languages remains unchanged. Adjusted indexes support the full spectrum of so-called
 content-and-structure single path queries. Apart from greatly reduced storage consumption, our approach
 demonstrates its superiority, compared to competing methods, not only for a substantial fraction of those
 queries, but also for storing, reconstructing, and navigating XML documents.