Graduate course: A theory of mobile processes, 5p

"Mobile systems, whose components communicate and change their structure, now pervade the informational world and the wider world of which it is a part. But the science of mobile systems is yet immature. This science must be developed if we are properly to understand mobile systems, and if we are to design systems so that they do what they are intended to do."

This course presents one now very popular and well spread theoretical foundation for mobile processes, namely the pi-calculus. Originally developed by Milner, Parrow and Walker in the late 1980's it has now proliferated into many variants. We shall cover the basic principles and some of the most common variants.

• The pi-calculus: basic syntax and semantics.
• Bisimulation equivalences and congruences.
• Axiomatisations.
• Subcalculi.
• Higher-order calculi.
• Type systems.
• Applications to functional and object oriented languagees.
• Basic principles of the Mobility Workbench, an automatic tool for the pi-calculus.

The course is intended for theoretically inclined graduate students in computer science or computer systems. Previous experience of some process algebra will be helpful but not strictly necessary.

1. Parrow: An introduction to the pi-calculus, In Handbook of Process Algebra, ed. Bergstra, Ponse, Smolka, pages 479-543, Elsevier 2001. (postscript)
2. Sangiorgi, Walker: The pi-calculus, a theory of mobile processes. Cambridge University Press 2001. (info)

Weekly seminars on Mondays 14:15-15:00, beginning November 11 2002 in room 6001 (by Rullan).

Phase 1

Lectures on an overview of the pi-calculus, roughly following paper 1. above

Phase 2

Student presentations on book chapters about the pi-calculus from 2. above

Phase 3

Project on verification tools for mobile processes, e.g., the Mobility Workbench.

Active student participation in the seminars. Presentation of a chapter from 2 (individual assignment) and/or completion of a project on tools for mobile processes (group assignment). Here are some suggestions - please annotate/update with YOUR project!

• Joachim Parrow
• Björn Victor

• Exercises for phase 1: chapters 2-9 ( for chapters 6-9)
• Slides introducing tools for mobile processes
• Slides describing some internals of the MWB
• Slides introducing the fusion calculus

• ePrint Archive - archive for recent research in cryptology (with many cryptographic protocols).
• Calculi for Mobile Processes - resource page with links to bibliographies, researchers, groups, variants of pi, etc.