Undergraduate Course: Communication and Concurrency (INFR11110)
Course Outline
| School | School of Informatics |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Informatics |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
http://course.inf.ed.ac.uk/coc/ |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The course provides an introduction to the Calculus of Communicating Systems (CCS) giving the theoretical foundation, examples of practical applications and logics for describing important properties. The course focuses on a mathematical model of the behaviour of concurrent systems which treats crucial notions like deadlock and non-determinism, and which reflects the modular construction of systems. The course also focuses on specifying safety and liveness properties of such systems. The approach is a mixture of operational semantics, algebra and logic. It applies alike to hardware and software. Although CCS is one of several alternative approaches, the aim is to treat it in depth rather than to make superficial comparisons with others. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | Students MUST NOT also be taking
Communication and Concurrency (INFR10007)
|
Other requirements | This course is open to all Informatics students including those on joint degrees. For external students where this course is not listed in your DPT, please seek special permission from the course organiser. |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Delivery period: 2014/15 Semester 2, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Learn enabled: No |
Quota: None |
|
Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
12/01/2015 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
76 )
|
| Additional Notes |
|
| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Written Exam
70 %,
Coursework
30 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 2:00 | |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
1 - Analyse computation, particularly concurrent systems in the process calculus CCS. The analysis consists of modelling situations by abstracting away from details and recording their fundamentals in a small computationally and mathematically appropriate formalism and then doing the same for their specifications. Finally one understands how to use all this to increase systems reliability.
2 - Define behaviour of a system as a transition graph.
3 - Understand when two systems are behaviourally equivalent. as defined by the notion of bisimulation equivalence.
4 - Verify that two systems are equivalent or prove that they are not.
5 - Specify temporal properties of systems in the branching time logic CTL.
6 - Understand the meaning of temporal formulas.
7 - Show that a system has, or fails to have, a temporal property.
8 - Use tools for systems verification.
9 - Be able to assimilate knowledge about different formalisms and tools and put them to practical use. Understanding how to apply mathematical and logical ideas in systems and other computational contexts. |
Assessment Information
Two submissions are required, equally weighted. The first involves extensive use of the Concurrency Workbench. The second tests understanding (e.g., of bisimulation); it is a mixture of exercises, and questions similar to those that may occur in exams.
You should expect to spend approximately 30 hours on the coursework for this course.
If delivered in semester 1, this course will have an option for semester 1 only visiting undergraduate students, providing assessment prior to the end of the calendar year. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
*Modelling communication: media, agents, ports;
*Basic definitions; synchronisation; action and transition; the basic calculus;
*Transitional semantics; derivatives and derivation trees;
*Bisimulation; modal and temporal logic;
*Strong bisimulation and strong equivalence; experimenting upon agents; observation equivalence; equality of agents;
*Communication protocols; specification of systems with evolving structure;
*Model checking.
Relevant QAA Computing Curriculum Sections: Concurrency and Parallelism; Distributed Computer Systems; Theoretical Computing; Programming Fundamentals |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
* ** R. Milner, Communication and Concurrency, Prentice-Hall 1989.
* ** C. Stirling, Modal and Temporal Properties of Processes, Springer Texts in Computer Science 2001.
* * C. Fencott, Formal Methods for Concurrency, International Thomson Computer Press 1996.
* * M. Hennessy, Algebraic Theory of Processes, MIT Press 1988 |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Mary Cryan
Tel: (0131 6)50 5153
Email: mcryan@inf.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Claire Edminson
Tel: (0131 6)51 7607
Email: C.Edminson@ed.ac.uk |
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