A timed semantics of Orc

Orc is a kernel language for structured concurrent programming. Orc provides three powerful combinators that define the structure of a concurrent computation. These combinators support sequential and concurrent execution, and concurrent execution with blocking and termination.Orc is particularly well-suited for task orchestration, a form of concurrent programming with applications in workflow, business process management, and web service orchestration. Orc provides constructs to orchestrate the concurrent invocation of services while managing time-outs, priorities, and failures of services or communication.Our previous work on the semantics of Orc focused on its asynchronous behavior. The inclusion of time or the effect of delay on a computation had not been modeled. In this paper, we define an operational semantics of Orc that allows reasoning about delays, which are introduced explicitly by time-based constructs or implicitly by network delays. We develop a number of identities among Orc expressions and define an equality relation that is a congruence. We also present a denotational semantics in which the meaning of an Orc program is a set of traces, and show that the two semantics are equivalent.     

Reduction Semantics and Formal Analysis of Orc Programs

Orc is a language for orchestration of web services developed by J. Misra that offers simple, yet powerful and elegant, constructs to program sophisticated web orchestration applications. The formal semantics of Orc poses interesting challenges, because of its real-time nature and the different priorities of external and internal actions. In this paper, building upon our previous SOS semantics of Orc in rewriting logic, we present a much more efficient reduction semantics of Orc, which is provably equivalent to the SOS semantics thanks to a strong bisimulation. We view this reduction semantics as a key intermediate stage towards a future, provably correct distributed implementation of Orc, and show how it can naturally be extended to a distributed actor-like semantics. We show experiments demonstrating the much better performance of the reduction semantics when compared to the SOS semantics. Using the Maude rewriting logic language, we also illustrate how the reduction semantics can be used to endow Orc with useful formal analysis capabilities, including an LTL model checker. We illustrate these formal analysis features by means of an online auction system, which is modeled as a distributed system of actors that perform Orc computations.     

From algebraic semantics to denotational semantics for Verilog

This paper considers how the algebraic semantics for Verilog relates with its denotational semantics. Our approach is to derive the denotational semantics from the algebraic semantics. We first present the algebraic laws for Verilog. Every program can be expressed as a guarded choice that can model the execution of a program. In order to investigate the parallel expansion laws, a sequence is introduced, indicating which instantaneous action is due to which exact parallel component. A head normal form is defined for each program by using a locality sequence. We provide a strategy for deriving the denotational semantics based on head normal form. Using this strategy, the denotational semantics for every program can be calculated. Program equivalence can also be explored by using the derived denotational semantics. A short version of this paper appeared in Proc. ICECCS 2006: 11th IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Complex Computer Systems [48]. This work is partially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2005CB321904), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2007AA010302) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 90718004). Jonathan Bowen is a visiting professor at King’s College London and an emeritus professor at London South Bank University.     

Service Composition and Execution Plan Generation of Composite Semantic WEB Services Using Abductive Event Calculus

Web Service composition is indispensable, as a single web service cannot satisfy the complex functional requirement of a user. The two key challenges of semantic web service composition are the discovery of the most relevant atomic services from the composite semantic web services and by no means we can assure the execution of the composed atomic services in a proper order. In this work, these two challenges are addressed, and a novel architecture is proposed for atomic service discovery, composition and automatic plan generation for the proper execution of its candidate services. The proposed architecture takes the advantage of abductive event calculus that uses abductive theorem prover to generate a plan for the proper order of execution of the atomic services. The research has found that the plan generated by the proposed architecture is sound and complete.     

Towards verification of computation orchestration

Recently, a promising programming model called Orc has been proposed to support a structured way of orchestrating distributed Web Services. Orc is intuitive because it offers concise constructors to manage concurrent communication, time-outs, priorities, failure of Web Services or communication and so forth. The semantics of Orc is precisely defined. However, there is no automatic verification tool available to verify critical properties against Orc programs. Our goal is to verify the orchestration programs (written in Orc language) which invoke web services to achieve certain goals. To investigate this problem and build useful tools, we explore in two directions. Firstly, we define a Timed Automata semantics for the Orc language, which we prove is semantically equivalent to the operational semantics of Orc. Consequently, Timed Automata models are systematically constructed from Orc programs. The practical implication is that existing tool supports for Timed Automata, e.g., Uppaal, can be used to simulate and model check Orc programs. An experimental tool has been implemented to automate this approach. Secondly, we start with encoding the operational semantics of Orc language in Constraint Logic Programming (CLP), which allows a systematic translation from Orc to CLP. Powerful constraint solvers like CLP \({(\mathcal{R})}\) are then used to prove traditional safety properties and beyond, e.g., reachability, deadlock-freeness, lower or upper bound of a time interval, etc. Counterexamples are generated when properties are not satisfied. Furthermore, the stepwise execution traces can be automatically generated as the simulation steps. The two different approaches give an insight into the verification problem of Web Service orchestration. The Timed Automata approach has its merits in visualized simulation and efficient verification supported by the well developed tools. On the other hand, the CPL approach gives better expressiveness in both modeling and verification. The two approaches complement each other, which gives a complete solution for the simulation and verification of Computation Orchestration.     

A comparative study of two formal semantics of the SIGNAL language

SIGNAL is a part of the synchronous languages family, which are broadly used in the design of safety-critical real-time systems such as avionics, space systems, and nuclear power plants. There exist several semantics for SIGNAL, such as denotational semantics based on traces (called trace semantics), denotational semantics based on tags (called tagged model semantics), operational semantics presented by structural style through an inductive definition of the set of possible transitions, operational semantics defined by synchronous transition systems (STS), etc. However, there is little research about the equivalence between these semantics. In this work, we would like to prove the equivalence between the trace semantics and the tagged model semantics, to get a determined and precise semantics of the SIGNAL language. These two semantics have several different definitions respectively, we select appropriate ones and mechanize them in the Coq platform, the Coq expressions of the abstract syntax of SIGNAL and the two semantics domains, i.e., the trace model and the tagged model, are also given. The distance between these two semantics discourages a direct proof of equivalence. Instead, we transformthem to an intermediate model, which mixes the features of both the trace semantics and the tagged model semantics. Finally, we get a determined and precise semantics of SIGNAL.     

基于功能语义的Web服务发现方法

随着Web服务技术的发展与应用,基于功能语义进行Web服务发现已经逐渐成为服务使用者最为迫切的需求.而现有的服务发现机制还不能很好地解决这一问题.所以提出了一种基于功能语义的Web服务发现方法.通过定义Web服务功能描述模型,规范服务提供者和使用者对Web服务功能的描述;同时构建了领域功能本体,提出语义标注的机制,从而让用户可以基于功能语义发现Web服务.并设计了基于功能语义的Web服务描述语言,构建了原型系统,为基于功能语义进行服务发现提供了一种有效可行的方法.     

动态模糊逻辑程序设计语言的指称语义

文献[8]借鉴Dijkstra的监督命令程序结构,给出了动态模糊逻辑程序设计语言的基本框架结构.在此基础上,进一步扩充和完善,并根据指称语义的原理和方法,用结构归纳法给出动态模糊逻辑程序设计语言的指称语义,主要包括:动态模糊程序设计语言的语义域、语义函数及其指称语义.最后给出了一个动态模糊程序设计语言的例子以观察程序的运行过程.     

Non-Standard Semantics for Program Slicing

In this paper we generalize the notion of compositional semantics to cope with transfinite reductions of a transition system. Standard denotational and predicate transformer semantics, even though compositional, provide inadequate models for some known program manipulation techniques. We are interested in the systematic design of extended compositional semantics, observing possible transfinite computations, i.e. computations that may occur after a given number of infinite loops. This generalization is necessary to deal with program manipulation techniques modifying the termination status of programs, such as program slicing. We include the transfinite generalization of semantics in the hierarchy developed in 1997 by P. Cousot, where semantics at different levels of abstraction are related with each other by abstract interpretation. We prove that a specular hierarchy of non-standard semantics modeling transfinite computations of programs can be specifiedin such a way that the standard hierarchy can be derived by abstract interpretation. We prove that non-standard transfinite denotational and predicate transformer semantics can be both systematically derived as solutions of simple abstract domain equations involving the basic operation of reduced power of abstract domains. This allows us to prove the optimality of these semantics, i.e. they are the most abstract semantics in the hierarchy which are compositional and observe respectively the terminating and initial states of transfinite computations, providing an adequate mathematical model for program manipulation.     

进程创建的语义及等价性

针对一个基于共享变量的带有进程创建的命令式语言,用变迁系统描述了它的结构操作语义,并用扩展的状态变迁迹模型定义了它的指称语义,在该模型下,状态变迁被区分为两种不同形式,分别表示发生在原进程和被创建进程中的状态变迁,这样便可以定义适当的语义复合运算,在对命令的指称进行复合时根据变迁类型的不同对变迁迹进行串行或交错连接,恰当地反映了进程的并发运行受创建命令在程序中的相对位置的限制,最后证明了这两个语义     

Linking denotational semantics with operational semantics for web services

Web Services have become more and more important in these years, and BPEL4WS (BPEL) is a de facto standard for the web service composition and orchestration. It contains several distinct features, including the scope-based compensation and fault handling mechanism. The denotational semantics and operational semantics have been explored for BPEL. The two semantic models should be consistent. This paper considers the linking of these two semantics. Our approach is to derive the denotational semantics from operational semantics for BPEL, which aims for the consistency of the two models. Moreover, the derivation can be applied in exploring the program equivalence easily, especially for parallel programs.     

A formal semantics for debugging synchronous message passing-based concurrent programs

In this paper, we propose a semantic framework to debug synchronous message passing-based con- current programs, which are increasingly useful as parallel computing and distributed systems become more and more pervasive. We first design a concurrent programming language model to uniformly represent exist- ing concurrent programming languages. Compared to sequential programming languages, this model contains communication statements, i.e., sending and receiving statements, and a concurrent structure to represent com- munication and concurrency. We then propose a debugging process consisting of a tracing and a locating procedure. The tracing procedure re-executes a program with a failed test case and uses specially designed data structures to collect useful execution information for locating bugs. We provide for the tracing procedure a struc- tural operational semantics to represent synchronous communication and concurrency. The locating procedure backward locates the ill-designed statement by using information obtained in the tracing procedure, generates a fix equation, and tries to fix the bug by solving the fix equation. We also propose a structural operational semantics for the locating procedure. We supply two examples to test our proposed operational semantics.     

Partial ordering models for concurrency can be defined operationally

Labelled rewriting systems are shown to be powerful enough for defining the semantics of concurrent systems in terms of partial orderings of events, even in the presence of non standard operators like N that is not expressible by means of concurrency and sequentialization. This contrasts with Pratt's claim.⁽¹⁾ The main operators proposed by Pratt are used here to construct terms denoting concurrent systems, the behavior of which consists of partially ordered multisets defined operationally.⁽²⁾ Fully abstractness of the denotational semantics as defined in Ref. 1 with respect to the operational one is finally proved.     

一个类Java语言的指称语义

文章提出了一个简化的Java语言SimpleJ并给出了此语言的指称语义。SimpleJ是一个简单的面向对象语言,具有Java语言的基本语义特点,该文通过对SimpleJ语言的语义域和语义方程的刻画和描述,讨论了以对象类型和异常语句为主的Java语言的语义特征。     

Event-based operational semantics and a consistency result for real-time concurrent processes with action refinement

In this paper an event-based operational interleaving semantics is proposed for real-time processes,for which action refinement and a denotational true concurrency semantics are developed and defined in terms of timed event structures. The authors characterize the timed event traces that are generated by the operational semantics in a denotational way, and show that this operational semantics is consistent with the denotational semantics in the sense that they generate the same set of timed event traces, thereby eliminating the gap between the true concurrency and interleaving semantics.     

UML活动图描述工作流模型的执行语义

UML是软件工程中广泛应用的建模语言,但其主要问题是缺少严格的形式化语义,因而描述的模型容易产生歧义．根据UML活动图的语法和工作流系统的特点,为UML活动图定义了一种执行语义．基于时间转变系统模型,将工作流系统的执行描述为时间转变和数据转变两个交替进行的过程．时间转变描述时间的前进,数据转变修改工作流案例的状态,这种语义比层次状态图具有更强的描述并行的能力,比Petri网和进程代数更适合描述工作流模型．     

关于Web服务组合的有效Web服务发现机制

随着Web Services的广泛流行,怎样发现适当Web Services来支持Web Services的组合已经成为一种挑战.由于传统的关键字搜索具有太低的记忆性和精确性,因此这种方法是很低效的.基于Web Services的描述信息,介绍了一种有效的Web Services发现机制.此服务发现方法是简单可用的,通过引入语义变得十分高效,因此该机制成功的在服务组合模型上得到了实现.     

Algebraic approach to linking the semantics of web services

Web services have become more and more important in these years, and BPEL4WS (BPEL) is a de facto standard for the web service composition and orchestration. It contains several distinct features, including the scope-based compensation and fault handling mechanism. We have considered the operational semantics and denotational semantics for BPEL, where a set of algebraic laws can be achieved via these two models, respectively. In this paper, we consider the inverse work, deriving the operational semantics and denotational semantics from algebraic semantics for BPEL. In our model, we introduce four types of typical programs, by which every program can be expressed as the summation of these four types. Based on the algebraic semantics, the strategy for deriving the operational semantics is provided and a transition system is derived by strict proof. This can be considered as the soundness exploration for the operational semantics based on the algebraic semantics. Further, the equivalence between the derivation strategy and the derived transition system is explored, which can be considered as the completeness of the operational semantics. Finally, the derivation of the denotational semantics from algebraic semantics is explored, which can support to reason about more program properties easily.     

A Semantic Matchmaker for Ranking Web Services

This paper is concerned with the matchmaker for ranking web services by using semantics. So far several methods of semantic matchmaker have been proposed. Most of them, however, focus on classifying the services into predefined categories rather than providing a ranking result. In this paper, a new method of semantic matchmaker is proposed for ranking web services. It is proposed to use the semantic distance for estimating the matching degree between a service and a user request. Four types of semantic distances are defined and four algorithms are implemented respectively to calculate them. Experimental results show that the proposed semantic matchmaker significantly outperforms the keyword based baseline method.     

Trace Semantics and Algebraic Laws for Total Store Order Memory Model

Modern multiprocessors deploy a variety of weak memory models(WMMs).Total Store Order(TSO) is a widely-used weak memory model in SPARC implementations and x86 architecture.It omits the store-load constraint by allowing each core to employ a write buffer.In this paper,we apply Unifying Theories of Programming(abbreviated as UTP) in investigating the trace semantics for TSO,acting in the denotational semantics style.A trace is expressed as a sequence of snapshots,which records the changes in registers,write buffers and the shared memory.All the valid execution results containing reorderings can be described after kicking out those that do not satisfy program order and modification order.This paper also presents a set of algebraic laws for TSO.We study the concept of head normal form,and every program can be expressed in the head normal form of the guarded choice which is able to model the execution of a program with reorderings.Then the linearizability of the TSO model is supported.Furthermore,we consider the linking between trace semantics and algebraic semantics.The linking is achieved through deriving trace semantics from algebraic semantics,and the derivation strategy under the TSO model is provided.