5,647 research outputs found
Behavioral Equivalences
Beahvioral equivalences serve to establish in which cases two reactive (possible concurrent) systems offer similar interaction capabilities relatively to other systems representing their operating environment. Behavioral equivalences have been mainly developed in the context
of process algebras, mathematically rigorous languages that have been used for describing and verifying properties of concurrent communicating systems. By relying on the so called structural operational semantics (SOS), labelled transition systems, are associated to each term of a process
algebra. Behavioral equivalences are used to abstract from unwanted details and identify those labelled transition systems that react “similarly” to external experiments. Due to the large number of properties which may be relevant in the analysis of concurrent systems, many different theories
of equivalences have been proposed in the literature. The main contenders consider those systems equivalent that (i) perform the same sequences of actions, or (ii) perform the same sequences of actions and after each sequence are ready to accept the same sets of actions, or (iii) perform the
same sequences of actions and after each sequence exhibit, recursively, the same behavior. This approach leads to many different equivalences that preserve significantly different properties of systems
A Linear-Time Branching-Time Spectrum for Behavioral Specification Theories
We propose behavioral specification theories for most equivalences in the
linear-time--branching-time spectrum. Almost all previous work on specification
theories focuses on bisimilarity, but there is a clear interest in
specification theories for other preorders and equivalences. We show that
specification theories for preorders cannot exist and develop a general scheme
which allows us to define behavioral specification theories, based on
disjunctive modal transition systems, for most equivalences in the
linear-time--branching-time spectrum
The Spectrum of Strong Behavioral Equivalences for Nondeterministic and Probabilistic Processes
We present a spectrum of trace-based, testing, and bisimulation equivalences
for nondeterministic and probabilistic processes whose activities are all
observable. For every equivalence under study, we examine the discriminating
power of three variants stemming from three approaches that differ for the way
probabilities of events are compared when nondeterministic choices are resolved
via deterministic schedulers. We show that the first approach - which compares
two resolutions relatively to the probability distributions of all considered
events - results in a fragment of the spectrum compatible with the spectrum of
behavioral equivalences for fully probabilistic processes. In contrast, the
second approach - which compares the probabilities of the events of a
resolution with the probabilities of the same events in possibly different
resolutions - gives rise to another fragment composed of coarser equivalences
that exhibits several analogies with the spectrum of behavioral equivalences
for fully nondeterministic processes. Finally, the third approach - which only
compares the extremal probabilities of each event stemming from the different
resolutions - yields even coarser equivalences that, however, give rise to a
hierarchy similar to that stemming from the second approach.Comment: In Proceedings QAPL 2013, arXiv:1306.241
A uniform framework for modelling nondeterministic, probabilistic, stochastic, or mixed processes and their behavioral equivalences
Labeled transition systems are typically used as behavioral models of concurrent processes, and the labeled transitions define the a one-step state-to-state reachability relation. This model can be made generalized by modifying the transition relation to associate a state reachability distribution, rather than a single target state, with any pair of source state and transition label. The state reachability distribution becomes a function mapping each possible target state to a value that expresses the degree of one-step reachability of that state. Values are taken from a preordered set equipped with a minimum that denotes unreachability. By selecting suitable preordered sets, the resulting model, called ULTraS from Uniform Labeled Transition System, can be specialized to capture well-known models of fully nondeterministic processes (LTS), fully
probabilistic processes (ADTMC), fully stochastic processes (ACTMC), and of nondeterministic and probabilistic (MDP) or nondeterministic and stochastic (CTMDP) processes. This uniform treatment of different behavioral models extends to behavioral equivalences. These can be defined on ULTraS by relying on appropriate measure functions that expresses the degree of reachability of a set of states when performing
single-step or multi-step computations. It is shown that the specializations of bisimulation, trace, and testing
equivalences for the different classes of ULTraS coincide with the behavioral equivalences defined in the literature over traditional models
Bisimulation of Labeled State-to-Function Transition Systems of Stochastic Process Languages
Labeled state-to-function transition systems, FuTS for short, admit multiple
transition schemes from states to functions of finite support over general
semirings. As such they constitute a convenient modeling instrument to deal
with stochastic process languages. In this paper, the notion of bisimulation
induced by a FuTS is proposed and a correspondence result is proven stating
that FuTS-bisimulation coincides with the behavioral equivalence of the
associated functor. As generic examples, the concrete existing equivalences for
the core of the process algebras ACP, PEPA and IMC are related to the
bisimulation of specific FuTS, providing via the correspondence result
coalgebraic justification of the equivalences of these calculi.Comment: In Proceedings ACCAT 2012, arXiv:1208.430
Bisimulations Meet PCTL Equivalences for Probabilistic Automata
Probabilistic automata (PAs) have been successfully applied in formal
verification of concurrent and stochastic systems. Efficient model checking
algorithms have been studied, where the most often used logics for expressing
properties are based on probabilistic computation tree logic (PCTL) and its
extension PCTL^*. Various behavioral equivalences are proposed, as a powerful
tool for abstraction and compositional minimization for PAs. Unfortunately, the
equivalences are well-known to be sound, but not complete with respect to the
logical equivalences induced by PCTL or PCTL*. The desire of a both sound and
complete behavioral equivalence has been pointed out by Segala in 1995, but
remains open throughout the years. In this paper we introduce novel notions of
strong bisimulation relations, which characterize PCTL and PCTL* exactly. We
extend weak bisimulations that characterize PCTL and PCTL* without next
operator, respectively. Further, we also extend the framework to simulation
preorders. Thus, our paper bridges the gap between logical and behavioral
equivalences and preorders in this setting.Comment: Long version of CONCUR'11 with the same title: added extension to
simulations, countable state
Coalgebraic Behavioral Metrics
We study different behavioral metrics, such as those arising from both
branching and linear-time semantics, in a coalgebraic setting. Given a
coalgebra for a functor , we define a framework for deriving pseudometrics on which
measure the behavioral distance of states.
A crucial step is the lifting of the functor on to a
functor on the category of pseudometric spaces.
We present two different approaches which can be viewed as generalizations of
the Kantorovich and Wasserstein pseudometrics for probability measures. We show
that the pseudometrics provided by the two approaches coincide on several
natural examples, but in general they differ.
If has a final coalgebra, every lifting yields in a
canonical way a behavioral distance which is usually branching-time, i.e., it
generalizes bisimilarity. In order to model linear-time metrics (generalizing
trace equivalences), we show sufficient conditions for lifting distributive
laws and monads. These results enable us to employ the generalized powerset
construction
Tau-Equivalences and Refinement for Petri Nets Based Design
The paper is devoted to the investigation of behavioral equivalences of concurrent systems modeled by Petri nets with silent transitions. Basic τ-equivalences and back-forth τ-bisimulation equivalences known from the literature are supplemented by new ones, giving rise to complete set of equivalence notions in interleaving / true concurrency and linear / branching time semantcis. Their interrelations are examined for the general class of nets as well as for their subclasses of nets without siltent transitions and sequential nets (nets without concurrent transitions). In addition, the preservation of all the equivalence notions by refinements (allowing one to consider the systems to be modeled on a lower abstraction levels) is investigated
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