Deriving Bisimulation Relations from Path Extension Based Equivalence Checkers

Constructing bisimulation relations between programs as a means of translation validation has been an active field of study. The problem is in general undecidable. Currently available mechanisms suffer from drawbacks such as non-termination and significant restrictions on the structures of programs to be checked. We have developed a path extension based equivalence checking method as an alternative translation validation technique to alleviate these drawbacks. In this work, path extension based equivalence checking of programs (flowcharts) is leveraged to establish a bisimulation relation between a program and its translated version by constructing the relation from the outputs of the equivalence checker.