Decision procedures and graph reductions for bisimulation equivalences part 1

In Process Algebra, processes are often specified in a framework of bisimulation semantics. The notion of bisimulation therefore plays an important role.

In this paper some existing and new decision methods are presented for strong bisimulation, τ-bisimulation and η-bisimulation. Each of these bisimulation equivalences corresponds to a certain abstraction mechanism.

In strong bisimulation, all events in a system are treated equally whereas τ-bisimulation takes into account the silent step τ; η-bisimulation was introduced recently for an alternative silent step η that is less abstract than τ. It is shown that the problem of η-bisimulation decision can be reduced to an abstract graph partitioning problem called the Product Relational Coarsest Partition problem. Special attention is paid to computational complexity of the decision methods.

As it turns out. finite process graphs can be reduced to unique minimal normalforms under all three bisimulation semantics mentioned.

The last section demonstrates how the decision methods can be used with a particular algebraic model to enable effective verification of specifications.     

ARMA-models and their equivalences

The classical theory of ‘strict system equivalence’ of Rosenbrock and Fuhrmann is presented in a very general setting, namely, in the setting of ARMA-models defined over an arbitrary commutative ring.     

Extensional equivalences for transition systems

Summary Various notions of systems equivalence based on the reactions of systems to stimuli from the outside world are presented and compared. These notions have been proposed in the literature to allow abstraction from unwanted details in models of concurrent and communicating systems. The equivalences, already defined for different theories of concurrency, will be compared by adapting their definitions to labelled transition systems, a model which underlies many others. In the presentation of each equivalence, the aspects of system behaviours which are ignored and the identifications which are forced will be stressed. It will be shown that many equivalences, although defined very differently by following different intuitions about systems behaviour, turn out to be the same or to differ only in minor detail for a large class of transition systems.     

Behavioural equivalences of a probabilistic pi-calculus

Although different kinds of probabilistic π-calculus have been introduced and found their place in quantitative verification and evaluation,their behavioural equivalences still lack a deep investigation.We propose a simple probabilistic extension of the π-calculus,π p,which is inspired by Herescu and Palamidessi’s probabilistic asynchronous π-calculus.An early semantics of our π p is presented.We generalise several classic behavioural equivalences to probabilistic versions,obtaining the probabilistic(strong) barbed equivalence and probabilistic bisimulation for π p.Then we prove that the coincidence between the barbed equivalence and bisimilarity in the π-calculus is preserved in the probabilistic setting.     

On logical and concurrent equivalences

We consider modal analogues of Hintikka et al.'s ‘independence-friendly first-order logic’, and discuss their relationship to equivalences previously studied in concurrency theory.     

Algebraic equivalences of nested relational operators

Algebraic optimisation is both theoretically and practically important for query processing in complex value databases. In this paper, we consider this issue and investigate some algebraic properties concerning the nested relational operators.The join operation is one of the most time-consuming operations in nested relational query processing. We introduce a new join operator, called P-join, which combines the advantages of Roth's extended natural join and Colby's recursive join for efficient data access. We also investigate some algebraic properties concerning the P-join operator and extended relational operators, which can be used for query optimisation in nested relational databases.We then examine the role of the restructuring operators nest and unnest in their interactions with the extended relational operators proposed by Roth et al. Under certain functional and mutual data dependencies, the six nested relational equations will hold.Finally, we outline the steps of a heuristic optimisation algorithm that utilises algebraic transformation rules developed in this paper and previous related work to transform an initial query to an optimised one that is more efficient to execute.     

Undecidable equivalences for basic parallel processes

The trace equivalence of BPP was shown to be undecidable by Hirshfeld. We show that all the preorders and equivalences except bisimulation in Glabbeek’s linear time-branching time spectrum are undecidable for BPP. The results are obtained by extending Hirshfeld’s encoding of Minsky machines into BPP. We also show that those preorders and equivalences are undecidable even for a restriction of BPP to 2-labels.     

Comparing locality and causality based equivalences

For CCS [15] several noninterleaving semantics have been proposed among which causal bisimulation [9] and location equivalence [6] play a central role. To unify these two approaches this paper introduces a new transition system based onlocal andglobal causes. Bisimulation equivalence is parameterized by a functionf which evaluates the information on causes provided by the transitions. Appropriate instantiations off yield characterizations of causal bisimulations and location equivalence.     

Fuzzy controllers: synthesis and equivalences

It has been proved that fuzzy controllers are capable of approximating any real continuous control function on a compact set to arbitrary accuracy. In particular, any given linear control can be achieved with a fuzzy controller for a given accuracy. The aim of this paper is to show how to automatically build this fuzzy controller. The proposed design methodology is detailed for the synthesis of a Sugeno or Mamdani type fuzzy controller precisely equivalent to a given PI controller. The main idea is to equate the output of the fuzzy controller with the output of the PI controller at some particular input values, called modal values. The rule base and the distribution of the membership functions can thus be deduced. The analytic expression of the output of the generated fuzzy controller is then established. For Sugeno-type fuzzy controllers, precise equivalence is directly obtained. For Mamdani-type fuzzy controllers, the defuzzification strategy and the inference operators have to be correctly chosen to provide linear interpolation between modal values. The usual inference operators satisfying the linearity requirement when using the center of gravity defuzzification method are proposed     

Unifying behavioral equivalences of timed transition systems

Timed transition systems are one of the most popular real-time models for concurrency. In the paper, various behavioral equivalences of timed transition systems are defined and studied. In particular, categories of this model are constructed, and their properties are studied. In addition, based on the open maps concept, abstract characterization of the considered equivalences is given. Such an approach makes it possible to develop a metatheory designed for unified definition and study of timed behavioral equivalences in the “linear time-branching time” spectrum of semantics.     

On the equivalences and differences of evolutionary algorithms

Evolutionary algorithms (EAs) are fast and robust computation methods for global optimization, and have been widely used in many real-world applications. We first conceptually discuss the equivalences of various popular EAs including genetic algorithm (GA), biogeography-based optimization (BBO), differential evolution (DE), evolution strategy (ES) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). We find that the basic versions of BBO, DE, ES and PSO are equal to the GA with global uniform recombination (GA/GUR) under certain conditions. Then we discuss their differences based on biological motivations and implementation details, and point out that their distinctions enhance the diversity of EA research and applications. To further study the characteristics of various EAs, we compare the basic versions and advanced versions of GA, BBO, DE, ES and PSO to explore their optimization ability on a set of real-world continuous optimization problems. Empirical results show that among the basic versions of the algorithms, BBO performs best on the benchmarks that we studied. Among the advanced versions of the algorithms, DE and ES perform best on the benchmarks that we studied. However, our main conclusion is that the conceptual equivalence of the algorithms is supported by the fact that algorithmic modifications result in very different performance levels.     

Compositional semantics and behavioral equivalences for P Systems

The aim of the paper is to give a compositional semantics in the style of the Structural Operational Semantics (SOS) and to study behavioral equivalence notions for P Systems. Firstly, we consider P Systems with maximal parallelism and without priorities. We define a process algebra, called P Algebra, whose terms model membranes, we equip the algebra with a Labeled Transition System (LTS) obtained through SOS transition rules, and we study how some equivalence notions defined over the LTS model apply in our case. Then, we consider P Systems with priorities and extend the introduced framework to deal with them. We prove that our compositional semantics reflects correctly maximal parallelism and priorities.     

Behavioural equivalences and interference metrics for mobile ad-hoc networks

Connectivity and communication interference are two key aspects in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). This paper proposes a process algebraic model targeted at the analysis of both such aspects. The framework includes a probabilistic process calculus and a suite of analytical techniques based on a probabilistic observational congruence and an interference-sensitive preorder. The former enables the verification of behavioural equivalences; the latter makes it possible to evaluate the interference level of behaviourally equivalent networks. The result is a comprehensive and effective framework for the behavioural analysis and a quantitative assessment of interference for wireless networks in the presence of node mobility. We show our techniques at work on two realistic case studies.     

Factorisation of finite state machines under strong and observational equivalences

The factorisation problem is to construct the specification of a submoduleX when the specifications of the system and all submodules butX are given. It is usually described by the equation where P and X are submodules of system Q, ¦ is a composition operator, and is the equivalence criterion. In this paper we use a finite state machine (FSM) model consistent with CCS and study two factorisation problems:P |||P Q andP |||P Q, where ||| is a derived CCS composition operator, and represent strong and observational equivalences. Algorithms are presented and proved correct to find the most general specification of submoduleX forP |||P Q withQ -deterministic and forP |||P Q withQ deterministic. Conditions on the submachines of the most general solutions that remain solutions toP |||P Q(P |||P Q) are given. This paper extends and is based on the work of M. W. Shields.     

Infinitary rewriting: closure operators, equivalences and models

Infinitary Term Rewriting allows to express infinite terms and transfinite reductions that converge to those terms. Underpinning the machinery of infinitary rewriting are closure operators on relations that facilitate the formation of transfinite reductions and transfinite equivalence proofs. The literature on infinitary rewriting has largely neglected to single out such closure operators, leaving them implicit in definitions of (transfinite) rewrite reductions, or equivalence relations. This paper unpicks some of those definitions, extracting the underlying closure principles used, as well as constructing alternative operators that lead to alternative notions of reduction and equivalence. A consequence of this unpicking is an insight into the abstraction level at which these operators can be defined. Some of the material in this paper already appeared in Kahrs (2010). The paper also generalises the notion of equational model for infinitary rewriting. This leads to semantics-based notions of equivalence that tie in with the equivalences constructed from the closure operators.     

Trace,failure and testing equivalences for communicating processes

A basic question in the theory of communicating processes is “When should two processes be considered equivalent?”. Attempts to answer this question have led to the concepts of observation equivalence, bisimulations, testing equivalence, failure equivalence, etc. The main point of this paper is to increase the understanding and motivation for two of these equivalences, namely failure and testing equivalences. The approach starts with the idea that the equivalence of processes should be reducible to the visible sequences of actions which a process performs in various contexts. This idea is implemented by a string-based semantic order for communicating processes where divergence is catastrophic. Under some assumptions about contexts, the resulting semantics is shown to be equivalent to theimproved failure semantics of Brookes and Roscoe⁽¹⁾ and also to themust testing-semantics of Hennessy and DeNicola.^(2–4) This characterization gives independent support for the appropriateness of failures and testing.