Reachability problems for communicating finite state machines

Abstract

The paper deals with the verification of reachability properties in a commonly used state transition model of communication protocols, which consists of finite state machines connected by potentially unbounded FIFO channels. Although simple reachability problems are undecidable for general protocols with unbounded channels, they are decidable for the protocols with the recognizable channel property. The decidability question is open for the protocols with the rational channel property.