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An On-the-Fly Synthesis Framework for LTL over Finite Traces

  • Shengping Xiao
  • , Yongkang Li
  • , Shufang Zhu
  • , Jun Sun
  • , Jianwen Li*
  • , Geguang Pu*
  • , Moshe Y. Vardi
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • East China Normal University
  • University of Liverpool
  • Singapore Management University
  • Rice University

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We present an on-the-fly synthesis framework for Linear Temporal Logic over Finite Traces (<ani:sans-serif>LTL</ani:sans-serif>f) based on top-down deterministic automata construction. Existing approaches rely on constructing a complete Deterministic Finite Automaton (<ani:sans-serif>DFA</ani:sans-serif>) corresponding to the <ani:sans-serif>LTL</ani:sans-serif>f specification, a process with doubly exponential complexity relative to formula size in the worst case. In this case, the synthesis cannot be conducted until the entire <ani:sans-serif>DFA</ani:sans-serif> is constructed. This inefficiency is the main bottleneck of existing approaches. To address this challenge, we first present a method for converting <ani:sans-serif>LTL</ani:sans-serif>f into Transition-Based <ani:sans-serif>DFA</ani:sans-serif> (<ani:sans-serif>TDFA</ani:sans-serif>) by directly leveraging <ani:sans-serif>LTL</ani:sans-serif>f semantics, incorporating intermediate results as direct components of the final automaton to enable parallelized synthesis and automata construction. We then explore the relationship between <ani:sans-serif>LTL</ani:sans-serif>f synthesis and <ani:sans-serif>TDFA</ani:sans-serif> games and subsequently develop an algorithm for performing <ani:sans-serif>LTL</ani:sans-serif>f synthesis via on-the-fly <ani:sans-serif>TDFA</ani:sans-serif> game solving. This algorithm traverses the state space in a global forward manner combined with a local backward method, along with detecting strongly connected components. Moreover, we introduce two optimization techniques—model-guided synthesis and state entailment—to enhance the practical efficiency of our approach. Experimental results demonstrate that our on-the-fly approach achieves the best performance on the tested benchmarks and effectively complements existing approaches.

Original languageEnglish
Article number115
JournalACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology
Volume35
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2026

Keywords

  • Game
  • LTL over Finite Traces
  • Reactive Synthesis
  • Realizability

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