Asynchronous Multiparty Session Type Implementability is Decidable - Lessons Learned from Message Sequence Charts

Multiparty session types (MSTs) provide efficient means to specify and verify asynchronous message-passing systems. For a global type, which specifies all interactions between roles in a system, the implementability problem asks whether there are local specifications for all roles such that their composition is deadlock-free and generates precisely the specified executions. Decidability of the implementability problem is an open question. We answer it positively for global types with sender-driven choice, which allow a sender to send to different receivers upon branching and a receiver to receive from different senders. To achieve this, we generalise results from the domain of high-level message sequence charts (HMSCs). This connection also allows us to comprehensively investigate how HMSC techniques can be adapted to the MST setting. This comprises techniques to make the problem algorithmically more tractable as well as a variant of implementability that may open new design space for MSTs. Inspired by potential performance benefits, we introduce a generalisation of the implementability problem that we, unfortunately, prove to be undecidable

Generalising Projection in Asynchronous Multiparty Session Types

Multiparty session types (MSTs) provide an efficient methodology for specifying and verifying message passing software systems. In the theory of MSTs, a global type specifies the interaction among the roles at the global level. A local specification for each role is generated by projecting from the global type on to the message exchanges it participates in. Whenever a global type can be projected on to each role, the composition of the projections is deadlock free and has exactly the behaviours specified by the global type. The key to the usability of MSTs is the projection operation: a more expressive projection allows more systems to be type-checked but requires a more difficult soundness argument. In this paper, we generalise the standard projection operation in MSTs. This allows us to model and type-check many design patterns in distributed systems, such as load balancing, that are rejected by the standard projection. The key to the new projection is an analysis that tracks causality between messages. Our soundness proof uses novel graph-theoretic techniques from the theory of message-sequence charts. We demonstrate the efficacy of the new projection operation by showing many global types for common patterns that can be projected under our projection but not under the standard projection operation

Non-Deterministic Functions as Non-Deterministic Processes

We study encodings of the ?-calculus into the ?-calculus in the unexplored case of calculi with non-determinism and failures. On the sequential side, we consider ?^?_?, a new non-deterministic calculus in which intersection types control resources (terms); on the concurrent side, we consider ??, a ?-calculus in which non-determinism and failure rest upon a Curry-Howard correspondence between linear logic and session types. We present a typed encoding of ?^?_? into ?? and establish its correctness. Our encoding precisely explains the interplay of non-deterministic and fail-prone evaluation in ?^?_? via typed processes in ??. In particular, it shows how failures in sequential evaluation (absence/excess of resources) can be neatly codified as interaction protocols

Non-Deterministic Functions as Non-Deterministic Processes

We study encodings of the λ-calculus into the π-calculus in the unexplored case of calculi with non-determinism and failures. On the sequential side, we consider λ^↯_⊕, a new non-deterministic calculus in which intersection types control resources (terms); on the concurrent side, we consider sπ, a π-calculus in which non-determinism and failure rest upon a Curry-Howard correspondence between linear logic and session types. We present a typed encoding of λ^↯_⊕ into sπ and establish its correctness. Our encoding precisely explains the interplay of non-deterministic and fail-prone evaluation in λ^↯_⊕ via typed processes in sπ. In particular, it shows how failures in sequential evaluation (absence/excess of resources) can be neatly codified as interactio

A unified view of parameterized verification of abstract models of broadcast communication

We give a unified view of different parameterized models of concurrent and distributed systems with broadcast communication based on transition systems. Based on the resulting formal models, we discuss related verification methods and tools based on abstractions and symbolic state exploration

Parameterized verification

The goal of parameterized verification is to prove the correctness of a system specification regardless of the number of its components. The problem is of interest in several different areas: verification of hardware design, multithreaded programs, distributed systems, and communication protocols. The problem is undecidable in general. Solutions for restricted classes of systems and properties have been studied in areas like theorem proving, model checking, automata and logic, process algebra, and constraint solving. In this introduction to the special issue, dedicated to a selection of works from the Parameterized Verification workshop PV \u201914 and PV \u201915, we survey some of the works developed in this research area

Fair Termination of Binary Sessions

A binary session is a private communication channel that connects two processes, each adhering to a protocol description called session type. In this work, we study the first type system that ensures the fair termination of binary sessions. A session fairly terminates if all of the infinite executions admitted by its protocol are deemed ‘unrealistic’ because they violate certain fairness assumptions. Fair termination entails the eventual completion of all pending input/output actions, including those that depend on the completion of an unbounded number of other actions in possibly different sessions. This form of lock freedom allows us to address a large family of natural communication patterns that fall outside the scope of existing type systems. Our type system is also the first to adopt fair subtyping, a liveness-preserving refinement of the standard subtyping relation for session types that so far has only been studied theoretically. Fair subtyping is surprisingly subtle not only to characterize concisely but also to use appropriately, to the point that the type system must carefully account for all usages of fair subtyping to avoid compromising its liveness-preserving properties

Inference Systems with Corules for Fair Subtyping and Liveness Properties of Binary Session Types

Many properties of communication protocols stem from the combination of safety and liveness properties. Characterizing such combined properties by means of a single inference system is difficult because of the fundamentally different techniques (coinduction and induction, respectively) usually involved in defining and proving them. In this paper we show that Generalized Inference Systems allow for simple and insightful characterizations of (at least some of) these combined inductive/coinductive properties for dependent session types. In particular, we illustrate the role of corules in characterizing weak termination (the property of protocols that can always eventually terminate), fair compliance (the property of interactions that can always be extended to reach client satisfaction) and also fair subtyping, a liveness-preserving refinement relation for session types

On polymorphic sessions and functions: A tale of two (fully abstract) encodings

This work exploits the logical foundation of session types to determine what kind of type discipline for the -calculus can exactly capture, and is captured by, -calculus behaviours. Leveraging the proof theoretic content of the soundness and completeness of sequent calculus and natural deduction presentations of linear logic, we develop the first mutually inverse and fully abstract processes-as-functions and functions-as-processes encodings between a polymorphic session -calculus and a linear formulation of System F. We are then able to derive results of the session calculus from the theory of the -calculus: (1) we obtain a characterisation of inductive and coinductive session types via their algebraic representations in System F; and (2) we extend our results to account for value and process passing, entailing strong normalisation