Presents a unified overview of the various process algebras currently in use and sets the standard for the field.

Process Algebra is a formal description technique for complex computer systems, especially those involving communicating, concurrently executing components. It is a subject that concurrently touches many topic areas of computer science and discrete math, including system design notations, logic, concurrency theory, specification and verification, operational semantics, algorithms, complexity theory, and, of course, algebra.This Handbook documents the fate of process algebra since its inception in the late 1970's to the present. It is intended to serve as a reference source for researchers, students, and system designers and engineers interested in either the theory of process algebra or in learning what process algebra brings to the table as a formal system description and verification technique. The Handbook is divided into six parts spanning a total of 19 self-contained Chapters. The organization is as follows. Part 1, consisting of four chapters, covers a broad swath of the basic theory of process algebra. Part 2 contains two chapters devoted to the sub-specialization of process algebra known as finite-state processes, while the three chapters of Part 3 look at infinite-state processes, value-passing processes and mobile processes in particular. Part 4, also three chapters in length, explores several extensions to process algebra including real-time, probability and priority. The four chapters of Part 5 examine non-interleaving process algebras, while Part 6's three chapters address process-algebra tools and applications.

Automated and semi-automated manipulation of so-called labelled transition systems has become an important means in discovering flaws in software and hardware systems. Process algebra has been developed to express such labelled transition systems algebraically, which enhances the ways of manipulation by means of equational logic and term rewriting. The theory of process algebra has developed rapidly over the last twenty years, and verification tools have been developed on the basis of process algebra, often in cooperation with techniques related to model checking. This textbook gives a thorough introduction into the basics of process algebra and its applications.

ACP, the Algebra of Communicating Processes, is an algebraic approach to the study of concurrent processes, initiated by Jan Bergstra and Jan Will em Klop in the early eighties. These proceedings comprise the contributions to ACP94, the first workshop devoted to ACP. The work shop was held at Utrecht University, 16-17 May 1994. These proceedings are meant to provide an overview of current research in the area of ACP. They contain fifteen contributions. The first one is a classical paper on ACP by J.A. Bergstra and J.W. Klop: The Algebra of Recursively Defined Processes and the Algebra of Regular Processes, Report IW 235/83, Mathematical Centre, Amsterdam, 1983. It serves as an introduction to the remainder of the proceedings and, indeed, as a general introduction to ACP. An extended abstract of this paper is published under the same title in the ICALP' 84 proceedings. Of the re maining contributions, three were submitted by the invited speakers and the others were selected by the programme committee. As for the presentations, Jos Baeten, Rob van Glabbeek, Jan Friso Groote, and Frits Vaandrager were each invited to deliver a lecture. A paper relating to Frits Vaandrager's lecture has already been submitted for publication elsewhere and is not, therefore, included in these pro ceedings. Gabriel Ciobanu, one of our guests, gave an impression of his work in an extra lecture. Furthermore, ten presentations were given on the basis of selected papers.

Rigorous theory and real-world applications for modeling and analysis of the behavior of complex communicating computer systems. Complex communicating computer systems—computers connected by data networks and in constant communication with their environments—do not always behave as expected. This book introduces behavioral modeling, a rigorous approach to behavioral specification and verification of concurrent and distributed systems. It is among the very few techniques capable of modeling systems interaction at a level of abstraction sufficient for the interaction to be understood and analyzed. Offering both a mathematically grounded theory and real-world applications, the book is suitable for classroom use and as a reference for system architects. The book covers the foundation of behavioral modeling using process algebra, transition systems, abstract data types, and modal logics. Exercises and examples augment the theoretical discussion. The book introduces a modeling language, mCRL2, that enables concise descriptions of even the most intricate distributed algorithms and protocols. Using behavioral axioms and such proof methods as confluence, cones, and foci, readers will learn how to prove such algorithms equal to their specifications. Specifications in mCRL2 can be simulated, visualized, or verified against their requirements. An extensive mCRL2 toolset for mechanically verifying the requirements is freely available online; this toolset has been successfully used to design and analyze industrial software that ranges from healthcare applications to particle accelerators at CERN. Appendixes offer material on equations and notation as well as exercise solutions.

Algebraic Theory of Processes provides the first general and systematic introduction to the semantics of concurrent systems, a relatively new research area in computer science.

Scientific knowledge grows at a phenomenal pace--but few books have had as lasting an impact or played as important a role in our modern world as The Mathematical Theory of Communication, published originally as a paper on communication theory more than fifty years ago. Republished in book form shortly thereafter, it has since gone through four hardcover and sixteen paperback printings. It is a revolutionary work, astounding in its foresight and contemporaneity. The University of Illinois Press is pleased and honored to issue this commemorative reprinting of a classic.