Process theory based on bisimulation semantics (original) (raw)

Decidability of bisimulation equivalence for process generating context-free languages

Journal of the ACM, 1993

A context-free grammar (CFG) in Greibach Normal Form coincides, in another notation, with a system of guarded recursion equations in Basic Process Algebra. Hence to each CFG a process can be assigned as solution, which has as its set of finite traces the context-free language (CFL) determined by that CFG. While the equality problem for CFL's is unsolvable, the equality problem for the processes determined by CFG's turns out to be solvable. Here equality on processes is given by a model of process graphs modulo bisimulation equivalence. The proof is given by displaying a periodic structure of the process graphs determined by CFG's. As a corollary of the periodicity a short proof of the solvability of the equivalence problem for simple context-free languages is given.

Process Equivalences as Global Bisimulations

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2006

Bisimulation can be defined in a simple way using coinductive methods, and has rather pleasant properties. Ready similarity was proposed by Meyer et al. as a way to weakening the bisimulation equivalence thus getting a semantics defined in a similar way, but supported for more reasonable (weaker) observational properties. Global bisimulations were introduced by Frutos et al. in order to study different variants of non-determinism getting, in particular, a semantics under which the internal choice operator becomes associative. Global bisimulations are defined as plain bisimulations but allowing the use of new moves, called global transitions, that can change the processes not only locally in its head, but anywhere. Now we are continuing the study of global bisimulation but focusing on the way different semantics can be characterised as global bisimulation semantics. In particular, we have studied ready similarity, on the one hand because it was proposed as the strongest reasonable semantics weaker than bisimulation; on the other hand, because ready similarity was not directly defined as an equivalence relation but as the nucleus of an order relation, and this open the question whether it is also possible to define it as a symmetric bisimulation-like semantics. We have got a simple and elegant characterisation of ready similarity as a global bisimulation semantics, that provides a direct symmetric characterisation of it as an equivalence relation, without using any order as intermediate concept. Besides, we have found that it is not necessary to start from a simulation based semantics to get an equivalent global bisimulation. What has proved to be very useful is the axiomatic characterisation of the semantics. Following these ideas we have got also global bisimulation for several semantics, including refusals and traces. That provides a general framework that allows to relate both intensional and extensional semantics.

Process Equivalences as Global Bisimulations1

Journal of Universal Computer …, 2006

Bisimulation can be defined in a simple way using coinductive methods, and has rather pleasant properties. Ready similarity was proposed by Meyer et al. as a way to weakening the bisimulation equivalence thus getting a semantics defined in a similar way, but supported for more reasonable (weaker) observational properties. Global bisimulations were introduced by Frutos et al. in order to study different variants of non-determinism getting, in particular, a semantics under which the internal choice operator becomes associative. Global bisimulations are defined as plain bisimulations but allowing the use of new moves, called global transitions, that can change the processes not only locally in its head, but anywhere. Now we are continuing the study of global bisimulation but focusing on the way different semantics can be characterised as global bisimulation semantics. In particular, we have studied ready similarity, on the one hand because it was proposed as the strongest reasonable semantics weaker than bisimulation; on the other hand, because ready similarity was not directly defined as an equivalence relation but as the nucleus of an order relation, and this open the question whether it is also possible to define it as a symmetric bisimulation-like semantics. We have got a simple and elegant characterisation of ready similarity as a global bisimulation semantics, that provides a direct symmetric characterisation of it as an equivalence relation, without using any order as intermediate concept. Besides, we have found that it is not necessary to start from a simulation based semantics to get an equivalent global bisimulation. What has proved to be very useful is the axiomatic characterisation of the semantics. Following these ideas we have got also global bisimulation for several semantics, including refusals and traces. That provides a general framework that allows to relate both intensional and extensional semantics.

Bisimulation of Labeled State-to-Function Transition Systems of Stochastic Process Languages

Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, 2012

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 addressed from a coalgebraic point of view. 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 stochastic process algebras PEPA and IML are related to the bisimulation of specific FuTS, providing via the correspondence result coalgebraic justification of the equivalences of these calculi.

A menagerie of non-finitely based process semantics over BPA* – from ready simulation to completed traces

Mathematical Structures in Computer Science, 1998

Fokkink and Zantema ((1994) Computer Journal 37:259-267) have shown that bisimulation equivalence has a finite equational axiomatization over the language of Basic Process Algebra with the binary Kleene star operation (BPA * ). In the light of this positive result on the mathematical tractability of bisimulation equivalence over BPA * , a natural question to ask is whether any other (pre)congruence relation in van Glabbeek's linear time/branching time spectrum is finitely (in)equationally axiomatizable over it. In this paper, we prove that, unlike bisimulation equivalence, none of the preorders and equivalences in van Glabbeek's linear time/branching time spectrum, whose discriminating power lies in between that of ready simulation and that of completed traces, has a finite equational axiomatization. This we achieve by exhibiting a family of (in)equivalences that holds in ready simulation semantics, the finest semantics that we consider, whose instances cannot all be proven by means of any finite set of (in)equations that is sound in completed trace semantics, which is the coarsest semantics that is appropriate for the language BPA * . To this end, for every finite collection of (in)equations that are sound in completed trace semantics, we build a model in which some of the (in)equivalences of the family under consideration fail. The construction of the model mimics the one used by Conway ((1971) Regular Algebra and Finite Machines, page 105) in his proof of a result, originally due to Redko, to the effect that infinitely many equations are needed to axiomatize equality of regular expressions.

On the Unification of Process Semantics: Equational Semantics

Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 2009

The complexity of parallel systems has produced a large collection of semantics for processes, a classification of which is provided by Van Glabbeek's linear time-branching time spectrum; however, no suitable unified definitions were available. We have discovered the way to unify them, both in an observational framework and by means of a quite small set of parameterized (in)equations that provide a sound and complete axiomatization of the preorders that define them. In more detail, we have proved that we only need a generic simulation axiom (NS), which defines the family of constrained simulation semantics, thus covering the class of branching time semantics, and a generic axiom (ND) for reducing the non-determinism of processes, by means of which we introduce the additional identifications induced by each of the linear time semantics.

Priority and abstraction in process algebra

Foundation of Software …, 1994

More than 15 years ago, Cleaveland and Hennessy proposed an extension of the process algebra CCS in which some actions may take priority over others. The theory was equipped with a behavioral congruence based on strong bisimulation.

Bisimulation equivalence is decidable for basic parallel processes

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 1993

In a previous paper the authors proved the decidability of bisimulation equivalence over two subclasses of recurslve processes involving a parallel composition operator, namely the so-caUed norrned and live processes. In this paper, we extend this result to the whole class. The decidability proof permits us further to present a complete axiomatisation for this class of basic parallel processes. This result can be viewed as a proper extension of Miiner's complete axiomatisation of bisimulation equivalence on regular processes.