Communicating and Mobile Systems: The Pi Calculus

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Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 1999-06-13
Publisher(s): Cambridge University Press
List Price: $72.39

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Summary

The pi-calculus differs from other models of communicating behaviour mainly in its treatment of mobility. The movement of a piece of data inside a computer program is treated exactly the same as the transfer of a message - or indeed an entire computer program - across the internet. One can also describe networks which reconfigure themselves. The calculus is very simple but powerful; its most prominent ingredient is the notion of a name. Its theory has two important ingredients: the concept of behavioural (or observational) equivalence, and the use of a new theory of types to classify patterns of interactive behaviour. The internet, and its communication protocols, fall within the scope of the theory just as much as computer programs, data structures, algorithms and programming languages. This book is the first textbook on the subject; it has been long-awaited by professionals and will be welcomed by them, and their students.

Table of Contents

Glossary viii
Preface x
Part I: Communicating Systems 1(74)
Introduction
3(5)
Behaviour of Automata
8(8)
Automata
8(2)
Regular sets
10(1)
The language of an automaton
11(1)
Determinism versus nondeterminism
12(1)
Black boxes, or reactive systems
13(2)
Summary
15(1)
Sequential Processes and Bisimulation
16(10)
Labelled transition systems
16(1)
Strong simulation
17(1)
Strong bisimulation
18(2)
Sequential process expressions
20(2)
Boolean buffer
22(1)
Scheduler
23(1)
Counter
24(1)
Summary
25(1)
Concurrent Processes and Reaction
26(12)
Labels and flowgraphs
26(1)
Observations and reactions
27(2)
Concurrent process expressions
29(2)
Structural congruence
31(2)
Reaction rules
33(4)
Summary
37(1)
Transitions and Strong Equivalence
38(14)
Labelled transitions
38(7)
Strong bisimilarity and applications
45(3)
Algebraic properties of strong equivalence
48(2)
Congruence
50(1)
Summary
51(1)
Observation Equivalence: Theory
52(8)
Observations
52(1)
Weak bisimulation
53(5)
Unique solution of equations
58(1)
Summary
59(1)
Observation Equivalence: Examples
60(15)
Lottery
60(1)
Job Shop
61(3)
Scheduler
64(3)
Buffer
67(2)
Stack and Counter
69(4)
Discussion
73(2)
Part II: The π-Calculus 75(82)
What is Mobility?
77(10)
Limited mobility
79(1)
Mobile phones
80(3)
Other examples of mobility
83(3)
Summary
86(1)
The π-Calculus and Reaction
87(11)
Names, actions and processes
87(2)
Structural congruence and reaction
89(2)
Mobility
91(2)
The polyadic π-calculus
93(1)
Recursive definitions
94(2)
Abstractions
96(1)
Summary
97(1)
Applications of the π-Calculus
98(15)
Simple systems
98(2)
Unique handling
100(3)
Data revisited
103(3)
Programming with lists
106(3)
Persistent and mutable data
109(4)
Sorts, Objects, and Functions
113(16)
A hierarchy of channel types?
113(1)
Sorts and sortings
114(2)
Extending the sort language
116(3)
Object-oriented programming
119(4)
Processes and abstractions as messages
123(2)
Functional computing as name-passing
125(4)
Commitments and Strong Bisimulation
129(13)
Abstractions and concretions
129(3)
Commitment rules
132(2)
Strong bisimulation, strong equivalence
134(2)
Congruence
136(2)
Basic congruence properties of replication
138(2)
Replicated resources
140(1)
Summary
141(1)
Observation Equivalence and Examples
142(11)
Experiments
142(1)
Weak bisimulation and congruence
143(2)
Unique solution of equations
145(1)
List programming
146(1)
Imperative programming
147(1)
Elastic buffer
148(3)
Reduction in the λ-calculus
151(2)
Discussion and related work
153(4)
References 157(2)
Index 159

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