Abstract

We present a process algebra or programming language, based on CCS, which may be used to describe discrete event simulations with parallelism. It has extensions to describe the passing of time and probabilistic choice, either discrete, between a countable number of processes, or continuous to choose a random amount of time to wait. It has a clear operational semantics and we give approaches to denotational semantics given in terms of an algebra of equivalences over processes. It raises questions about when two simulations are equivalent and what we mean by non-determinism in the context of the specification of a simulation. It also exemplifies some current approaches to adding time and probability to process algebras. 1 Introduction Imagine we wish to simulate the behaviour of a complex system with computerised components, such as a telephone network. First, let us look at the implementation of such a complex system. When it is implemented, typically work will start with some type of ...

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