Searching best paths to worst states

Probabilistic validation is a new approach to deal with large state transitions systems. The user's need is to prove that, for a given period of operations, that a given assertion on the reached states is true with a sufficient level of probability. The system to be validated is modeled by a stochastic Petri net. The analysis relies on a partial exploration of the reachability set and tries to reach as quickly as possible critical states (states in which the assertion is not verified). An exact linear program solution allows to 'travel' through the graph. The main goal of the paper is to present the principles of this searching algorithm.<
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