  Metric LTL formulas rely on the next operator to encode time distances,
whereas qualitative LTL formulas use only the until operator. This paper shows
how to transform any metric LTL formula M into a qualitative formula Q, such
that Q is satisfiable if and only if M is satisfiable over words with
variability bounded with respect to the largest distances used in M (i.e.,
occurrences of next), but the size of Q is independent of such distances.
Besides the theoretical interest, this result can help simplify the
verification of systems with time-granularity heterogeneity, where large
distances are required to express the coarse-grain dynamics in terms of
fine-grain time units.
