3,076 research outputs found
States in Process Calculi
Formal reasoning about distributed algorithms (like Consensus) typically
requires to analyze global states in a traditional state-based style. This is
in contrast to the traditional action-based reasoning of process calculi.
Nevertheless, we use domain-specific variants of the latter, as they are
convenient modeling languages in which the local code of processes can be
programmed explicitly, with the local state information usually managed via
parameter lists of process constants. However, domain-specific process calculi
are often equipped with (unlabeled) reduction semantics, building upon a rich
and convenient notion of structural congruence. Unfortunately, the price for
this convenience is that the analysis is cumbersome: the set of reachable
states is modulo structural congruence, and the processes' state information is
very hard to identify. We extract from congruence classes of reachable states
individual state-informative representatives that we supply with a proper
formal semantics. As a result, we can now freely switch between the process
calculus terms and their representatives, and we can use the stateful
representatives to perform assertional reasoning on process calculus models.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS/SOS 2014, arXiv:1408.127
Process Calculi Abstractions for Biology
Several approaches have been proposed to model biological systems by means of the formal techniques and tools available in computer science. To mention just a few of them, some representations are inspired by Petri Nets theory, and some other by stochastic processes. A most recent approach consists in interpreting the living entities as terms of process calculi where the behavior of the represented systems can be inferred by applying syntax-driven rules. A comprehensive picture of the state of the art of the process calculi approach to biological modeling is still missing. This paper goes in the direction of providing such a picture by presenting a comparative survey of the process calculi that have been used and proposed to describe the behavior of living entities. This is the preliminary version of a paper that was published in Algorithmic Bioprocesses. The original publication is available at http://www.springer.com/computer/foundations/book/978-3-540-88868-
On the Expressiveness of Markovian Process Calculi with Durational and Durationless Actions
Several Markovian process calculi have been proposed in the literature, which
differ from each other for various aspects. With regard to the action
representation, we distinguish between integrated-time Markovian process
calculi, in which every action has an exponentially distributed duration
associated with it, and orthogonal-time Markovian process calculi, in which
action execution is separated from time passing. Similar to deterministically
timed process calculi, we show that these two options are not irreconcilable by
exhibiting three mappings from an integrated-time Markovian process calculus to
an orthogonal-time Markovian process calculus that preserve the behavioral
equivalence of process terms under different interpretations of action
execution: eagerness, laziness, and maximal progress. The mappings are limited
to classes of process terms of the integrated-time Markovian process calculus
with restrictions on parallel composition and do not involve the full
capability of the orthogonal-time Markovian process calculus of expressing
nondeterministic choices, thus elucidating the only two important differences
between the two calculi: their synchronization disciplines and their ways of
solving choices
A criterion for separating process calculi
We introduce a new criterion, replacement freeness, to discern the relative
expressiveness of process calculi. Intuitively, a calculus is strongly
replacement free if replacing, within an enclosing context, a process that
cannot perform any visible action by an arbitrary process never inhibits the
capability of the resulting process to perform a visible action. We prove that
there exists no compositional and interaction sensitive encoding of a not
strongly replacement free calculus into any strongly replacement free one. We
then define a weaker version of replacement freeness, by only considering
replacement of closed processes, and prove that, if we additionally require the
encoding to preserve name independence, it is not even possible to encode a non
replacement free calculus into a weakly replacement free one. As a consequence
of our encodability results, we get that many calculi equipped with priority
are not replacement free and hence are not encodable into mainstream calculi
like CCS and pi-calculus, that instead are strongly replacement free. We also
prove that variants of pi-calculus with match among names, pattern matching or
polyadic synchronization are only weakly replacement free, hence they are
separated both from process calculi with priority and from mainstream calculi.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS'10, arXiv:1011.601
Structural Operational Semantics for Stochastic Process Calculi
A syntactic framework called SGSOS, for defining well-behaved Markovian stochastic transition systems, is introduced by analogy to the GSOS congruence format for nondeterministic processes. Stochastic bisimilarity is guaranteed a congruence for systems defined by SGSOS rules. Associativity of parallel composition in stochastic process algebras is also studied within the SGSOS framework
A uniform definition of stochastic process calculi
We introduce a unifying framework to provide the semantics of process algebras, including their quantitative variants useful for modeling quantitative aspects of behaviors. The unifying framework is then used to describe some of the most representative stochastic process algebras. This
provides a general and clear support for an understanding of their similarities and differences. The framework is based on State to Function Labeled Transition Systems, FuTSs for short, that are state-transition structures where each transition is a triple of the form (s; α;P). The first andthe second components are the source state, s, and the label, α, of the transition, while the third component is the continuation function, P, associating a value of a suitable type to each state s0. For example, in the case of stochastic process algebras the value of the continuation function on s0 represents the rate of the negative exponential distribution characterizing the duration/delay of the action performed to reach state s0 from s. We first provide the semantics of a simple formalism used to describe Continuous-Time Markov Chains, then we model a number of process algebras that permit parallel composition of models according to the two main interaction paradigms (multiparty and one-to-one synchronization). Finally, we deal with formalisms where actions and rates are kept separate and address the issues related to the coexistence of stochastic, probabilistic, and non-deterministic behaviors. For each formalism, we establish the formal correspondence between the FuTSs semantics and its original semantics
Stochastic Simulation of Process Calculi for Biology
Biological systems typically involve large numbers of components with
complex, highly parallel interactions and intrinsic stochasticity. To model
this complexity, numerous programming languages based on process calculi have
been developed, many of which are expressive enough to generate unbounded
numbers of molecular species and reactions. As a result of this expressiveness,
such calculi cannot rely on standard reaction-based simulation methods, which
require fixed numbers of species and reactions. Rather than implementing custom
stochastic simulation algorithms for each process calculus, we propose to use a
generic abstract machine that can be instantiated to a range of process calculi
and a range of reaction-based simulation algorithms. The abstract machine
functions as a just-in-time compiler, which dynamically updates the set of
possible reactions and chooses the next reaction in an iterative cycle. In this
short paper we give a brief summary of the generic abstract machine, and show
how it can be instantiated with the stochastic simulation algorithm known as
Gillespie's Direct Method. We also discuss the wider implications of such an
abstract machine, and outline how it can be used to simulate multiple calculi
simultaneously within a common framework.Comment: In Proceedings MeCBIC 2010, arXiv:1011.005
Rate-Based Transition Systems for Stochastic Process Calculi
A variant of Rate Transition Systems (RTS), proposed by Klin and Sassone, is introduced and used as the basic model for defining stochastic behaviour of processes. The transition relation used in our variant associates to each process, for each action, the set of possible futures paired with a measure indicating their rates. We show how RTS can be used for providing the operational semantics of stochastic extensions of classical formalisms, namely CSP and CCS. We also show that our semantics for stochastic CCS guarantees associativity of parallel composition. Similarly, in contrast with the original definition by Priami, we argue that a semantics for stochastic π-calculus can be provided that guarantees associativity of parallel composition
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