# The Power of Well-Structured Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1402.2908 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1402.2908/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Feb 2014.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Safety Verification of Wait-Only Non-Blocking Broadcast Protocols](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.18591/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Well-structured systems, aka WSTSs, are computational models where the set of possible configurations is equipped with a well-quasi-ordering which is compatible with the transition relation between configurations. This structure supports generic decidability results that are important in verification and several other fields. This paper recalls the basic theory underlying well-structured systems and shows how two classic decision algorithms can be formulated as an exhaustive search for some "bad" sequences. This lets us describe new powerful techniques for the complexity analysis of WSTS algorithms. Recently, these techniques have been successful in precisely characterising the power, in a complexity-theoretical sense, of several important WSTS models like unreliable channel systems, monotonic counter machines, or networks of timed systems.