This paper combines and extends the material of [GG-a/c/d/e], except for the part in [GG-c] on refinement of transitions in Petri nets and the discussion of TCSP-like parallel composition in [GG-e]. An informal presentation of some basic ingredients of this paper appeared as [GG-b]. Among others, the treatment of action refinement in stable and non-stable event structures is new. The research reported here was supported by Esprit project 432 (METEOR), Esprit Basic Research Action 3148 (DEMON), Sonderforschungsbereich 342 of the TU Munchen, ONR grant N00014-92-J-1974 and the Human Capital and Mobility Cooperation Network EXPRESS (Expressiveness of Languages for Concurrency). Contents

. Models for concurrency can be classified with respect to three relevant parameters: behaviour/system, interleaving/noninterleaving, linear/branching time. When modelling a process, a choice concerning such parameters corresponds to choosing the level of abstraction of the resulting semantics. The classifications are formalized through the medium of category theory. Keywords. Semantics, Concurrency, Models for Concurrency, Categories. Contents 1 Preliminaries 431 2 Deterministic Transition Systems 433 3 Noninterleaving vs. Interleaving Models 436 Synchronization Trees and Labelled Event Structures : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 438 Transition Systems with Independence : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 439 4 Behavioural, Linear Time, Noninterleaving Models 441 Semilanguages and Event Structures : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 443 Trace Languages and Event Structures : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 446 5 Transition Systems with Independence and Lab...

Message sequence charts (MSCs) are a standardised formalism for the specification of the system's communication behaviour that is widely used by industry. Various extensions to MSCs have recently been standardised by the ITU. This paper treats the extension of MSCs with structural operators that allow the hierarchical composition of MSCs. In particular, we propose a linear-time partial-order semantics for this extension that is based on the notion of partial-order multi-sets (pomsets, for short). We provide a compositional denotational semantics for hierarchical MSCs and show that well-known operations on pomsets correspond to the new composition operators in MSCs. The main benefit of our approach is that the semantics is conceptually rather straightforward, as opposed to the operational semantics for MSCs that is currently in the process of standardisation. Keywords Denotational semantics, partial-order multi-set, hierarchical MSC 1 INTRODUCTION In the telecommunication sector, MSC ...

Abstract. Van Glabbeek (1990) presented the linear time/branching time spectrum of behavioral equivalences for finitely branching, concrete, sequential processes. He studied these semantics in the setting of the basic process algebra BCCSP, and tried to give finite complete axiomatizations for them. Obtaining such axiomatizations in concurrency theory often turns out to be difficult, even in the setting of simple languages like BCCSP. This has raised a host of open questions that have been the subject of intensive research in recent years. Most of these questions have been settled over BCCSP, either positively by giving a finite complete axiomatization, or negatively by proving that such an axiomatization does not exist. Still some open questions remain. This paper reports on these results, and on the state-of-the-art in axiomatizations for richer process algebras with constructs like sequential and parallel composition. 1

This paper confirms a conjecture of Bergstra and Klop’s from 1984 by establishing that the process algebra obtained by adding an auxiliary operator proposed by Hennessy in 1981 to the recursion free fragment of Milner’s Calculus of Communicationg Systems is not finitely based modulo bisimulation equivalence. Thus Hennessy’s merge cannot replace the left merge and communication merge operators proposed by Bergstra and Klop, at least if a finite axiomatization of parallel composition is desired.

S. All local authors can be reached via e-mail at the address last-name@cs.unibo.it. Questions and comments should be addressed to tr-admin@cs.unibo.it. Recent Titles from the UBLCS Technical Report Series 97-4 An Algebra of Actors, M. Gaspari, G. Zavattaro, May 1997. 97-5 On the Turing Equivalence of Linda Coordination Primitives, N. Busi, R. Gorrieri, G. Zavattaro, May 1997 (Revised October 1998). 97-6 A Process Algebraic View of Linda Coordination Primitives, N. Busi, R. Gorrieri, G. Zavattaro, May 1997. 97-7 Validating a Software Architecture with respect to an Architectural Style, P. Ciancarini, W. Penzo, July 1997. 97-8 System Support for Partition-Aware Network Applications, O. Babaoglu, R. Davoli, A. Montresor, R. Segala, October 1997. 97-9 Generalized Semi-Markovian Process Algebra, M. Bravetti, M. Bernardo, R. Gorrieri, October 1997. 98-1 Group Communication in Partitionable Systems: Specification and Algorithms, O. Babao glu, R. Davoli, A. Montresor, April 1998. 98-2...

This paper extends to pomsets without auto-concurrency the fundamental notion of asynchronous cellular automata (ACA) which was originally introduced for traces by Zielonka. We generalize to pomsets the notion of asynchronous mapping introduced by Cori, Métivier and Zielonka and we show how to construct a deterministic ACA from an asynchronous mapping. Then we investigate the relation between the expressiveness of monadic second order logic, nondeterministic ACAs and deterministic ACAs. We can generalize Büchi’s theorem for finite words to a class of pomsets without auto-concurrency which satisfy a natural axiom. This axiom ensures that an asynchronous cellular automaton works on the pomset as a concurrent read and exclusive owner write machine. More precisely, in this class non-deterministic ACAs, deterministic ACAs and monadic second order logic have the same expressive power. Then we consider a class where deterministic ACAs are strictly weaker than nondeterministic ones. But in this class nondeterministic ACAs still capture monadic second order logic. Finally it is shown that even this equivalence does not hold in the class of all pomsets since there the class of recognizable pomset languages is not closed under complementation.

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This paper studies nested simulation and nested trace semantics over the language BCCSP, a basic formalism to express finite process behaviour. It is shown that none of these semantics affords finite (in)equational axiomatizations over BCCSP. In particular, for each of the nested semantics studied in this paper, the collection of sound, closed (in)equations over a singleton action set is not finitely based.

This paper offers three candidates for a deterministic, noninterleaving, behaviour model which generalizes Hoare traces to the noninterleaving situation. The three models are all proved equivalent in the rather strong sense of being equivalent as categories. The models are: deterministic labelled event structures, generalized trace languages in which the independence relation is context-dependent, and deterministic languages of pomsets. Introduction Models for concurrency can be classified according to whether they can represent the structure of systems or just their behaviours (Behaviour or System model); whether they can faithfully take into account the difference between concurrency and nondeterminism (Interleaving or Noninterleaving model); and, finally, whether they can represent the branching structure of processes, i.e., the points in which choices are taken, or not (Linear or Branching Time model). In [9], the authors studied a range of models based on such a classificatio...