Several probabilistic simulation relations for probabilistic systems are defined and evaluated according to two criteria: compositionality and preservation of "interesting" properties. Here, the interesting properties of a system are identified with those that are expressible in an untimed version of the Timed Probabilistic concurrent Computation Tree Logic (TPCTL) of Hansson. The definitions are made, and the evaluations carried out, in terms of a general labeled transition system model for concurrent probabilistic computation. The results cover weak simulations, which abstract from internal computation, as well as strong simulations, which do not.

ion Let E; E 0 be PCCS expressions. The inter-model abstraction rule IMARGR is defined by E ff[p] \Gamma\Gamma! i E 0 =) E ff[p= G (E;fffg)] ae \Gamma\Gamma\Gamma\Gamma\Gamma\Gamma! i E 0 This rule uses the generative normalization function to convert generative probabilities to reactive ones, thereby abstracting away from the relative probabilities between different actions. We can now define 'GR ('G (P )) as the reactive transition system that can be inferred from P 's generative transition system via IMARGR . By the same procedure as described at the end of Section 3.1, 'GR can be extended to a mapping 'GR : j GG ! j GR . Write P GR ¸ Q if P; Q 2 Pr are reactive bisimulation equivalent with respect to the transitions derivable from G+IMARGR , i.e. the theory obtained by adding IMARGR to the rules of Figure 7. The equivalence GR ¸ is defined just like R ¸ but using the cPDF ¯GR instead of ¯R . ¯GR is defined by ¯GR (P; ff; S) = X i2I R (=I G ) fj p i j G+ I...

In this tutorial we give an overview of the process algebra EMPA, a calculus devised in order to model and analyze features of real-world concurrent systems such as nondeterminism, priorities, probabilities and time, with a particular emphasis on performance evaluation. The purpose of this tutorial is to explain the design choices behind the development of EMPA and how the four features above interact, and to show that a reasonable trade off between the expressive power of the calculus and the complexity of its underlying theory has been achieved.

Bisimulations that abstract from internal computation have proven to be useful for verification of compositionally defined transition systems. In the literature of probabilistic extensions of such transition systems, similar bisimulations are rare. In this paper, we introduce weak and branching bisimulation for fully probabilistic systems, transition systems where nondeterministic branching is replaced by probabilistic branching. In contrast to the nondeterministic case, both relations coincide. We give an algorithm to decide weak (and branching) bisimulation with a time complexity cubic in the number of states of the fully probabilistic system. This meets the worst case complexity for deciding branching bisimulation in the nondeterministic case. In addition, the relation is shown to be a congruence with respect to the operators of PLSCCS , a lazy synchronous probabilistic variant of CCS. We illustrate that due to these properties, weak bisimulation provides all the crucial ingredients...

In this thesis, we present ecient implementation techniques for probabilistic model checking, a method which can be used to analyse probabilistic systems such as randomised distributed algorithms, fault-tolerant processes and communication networks. A probabilistic model checker inputs a probabilistic model and a speci cation, such as \the message will be delivered with probability 1", \the probability of shutdown occurring is at most 0.02" or \the probability of a leader being elected within 5 rounds is at least 0.98", and can automatically verify if the speci cation is true in the model.

A major reason for studying probabilistic processes is to establish a link between a formal model for describing functional system behaviour and a stochastic process. Compositionality is an essential ingredient for specifying systems. Parallel composition in a probabilistic setting is complicated since it gives rise to non-determinism, for instance due to interleaving of independent autonomous activities. This paper presents a detailed study of the resolution of non-determinism in an asynchronous generative setting. Based on the intuition behind the synchronous probabilistic calculus PCCS we formulate two criteria that an asynchronous parallel composition should fulfill. We provide novel probabilistic variants of parallel composition for CCS and CSP and show that these operators satisfy these general criteria, opposed to most existing proposals. Probabilistic bisimulation is shown to be a congruence for these operators and their expansion is addressed.

We set out a modal logic for reasoning about multilevel security of probabilistic systems. This logic contains expressions for time, probability, and knowledge. Making use of the Halpern-Tuttle framework for reasoning about knowledge and probability, we give a semantics for our logic and prove it is sound. We give two syntactic definitions of perfect multilevel security and show that their semantic interpretations are equivalent to earlier, independently motivated characterizations. We also discuss the relation between these characterizations of security and between their usefulness in security analysis.

Jones and Plotkin give a general construction for forming a probabilistic powerdomain over any directed-complete partial order [Jon90, JP89]. We apply their technique to the failures/divergences semantic model for Communicating Sequential Processes [Hoa85]. The resulting probabilistic model supports a new binary operator, probabilistic choice, and retains all operators of CSP including its two existing forms of choice. An advantage of using the general construction is that it is easy to see which CSP identities remain true in the probabilistic model. A surprising consequence however is that probabilistic choice distributes through all other operators; such algebraic mobility means that the syntactic position of the choice operator gives little information about when the choice actually must occur. That in turn leads to some interesting interaction between probability and nondeterminism. A simple communications protocol is used to illustrate the probabilistic algebra, and several sugg...

The communicating sequential processes (CSP) formalism, introduced by Hoare [Hoa85], is an event-based approach to distributed computing. The action-system formalism, introduced by Back & Kurki-Suonio [BKS83], is a state-based approach to distributed computing. Using weakest-precondition formulae, Morgan [Mor90a] has defined a correspondence between action systems and the failures-divergences model for CSP. Simulation is a proof technique for showing refinement of action systems. Using the correspondence of [Mor90a], Woodcock & Morgan [WM90] have shown that simulation is sound and complete in the CSP failures-divergences model. In this thesis, Morgan's correspondence is extended to the CSP infinite-traces model [Ros88] in order to deal more properly with unbounded nondeterminism. It is shown that simulation is sound in the infinite-traces model, though completeness is lost in certain cases. The new correspondence is then extended to include a notion of internal action. This allows the ...

. In this paper we study the extension of classical testing theory to a probabilistic process algebra. We consider a generative interpretation of probabilities for a language with two choice operators (one internal and the other external), which are annotated with a probability p 2 (0; 1). We define a testing semantics for our language, and we write P passp T to denote that the process P passes the test T with a probability p. We also give a set of essential tests which has the same strength as the full family of tests. Next we give an alternative characterization of the testing semantics, based on the idea of acceptance sets, and we prove that the new equivalence is equal to the testing equivalence. Finally, we present a fully abstract denotational semantics based on acceptance trees. 1 Introduction During the last years there has been a great activity devoted to the study of time and probabilistic extensions of concurrent processes. These extensions are very adequate for the spe...