Philippou, Anna (1996) Reasoning about systems with evolving structure. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the specification and verification of mobile systems, i.e. systems with dynamically-evolving communication topologies. The expressiveness and applicability of the πυ-calculus, an extension of the π-calculus with first-order data, is investigated for describing and reasoning about mobile systems.

The theory of confluence and determinacy in the πυ-calculus is studied, with emphasis on results and techniques which facilitate process verification. The utility of the calculus for giving descriptions which are precise, natural and amenable to rigorous analysis is illustrated in three applications. First, the behaviour of a distributed protocol is analysed. The use of a mobile calculus makes it possible to capture important intuitions concerning the behaviour of the algorithm; the theory of confluence plays a central role in its correctness proof. Secondly, an analysis of concurrent operations on a dynamic search structure, the B-tree, is carried out. This exploits results obtained concerning a notion of partial confluence by whose use classes of systems in which interaction between components is of a certain disciplined kind may be analysed. Finally, the πυ-calculus is used to give a semantic definition for a concurrent-object programming language and it is shown how this definition can be used as a basis for reasoning about systems prescribed by programs. Syntactic conditions on programs are isolated and shown to guarantee determinacy. Transformation rules which increase the scope for concurrent activity within programs without changing their observable behaviour are given and their soundness proved.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Electronic computers. Computer science. Computer software
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Computer networks -- Mathematical models, Mobile communication systems -- Mathematical models, Electronic data processing -- Mathematical models, Pi-calculus
Official Date:	December 1996
Dates:	Date Event December 1996 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Computer Science
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Walker, David, 1961-
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	ix, 246 leaves : illustrations
Language:	eng

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