Matteo Cimini

Modelling and simulation of asynchronous real-time systems using Timed Rebeca

Abstract In this paper we propose Timed Rebeca as an extension of the Rebeca language that can be used to model distributed and asynchronous systems with timing constraints. Timed Rebeca restricts the modeller to a pure asynchronous actor-based paradigm, where the structure of the model represents the service oriented architecture, while the computational model matches the network infrastructure. The modeller can specify both computational and network delay, and assign deadlines for serving a request. We provide the formal semantics of the language using Structural Operational Semantics, and show its expressiveness by means of examples. We developed a tool for automated translation from Timed Rebeca to the Erlang language, which provides a first implementation of Timed Rebeca. We can use the tool to set the parameters of Timed Rebeca models, which represent the environment and component variables, and use McErlang to run multiple simulations for different settings. The results of the simulations can then be employed to select the most appropriate values for the parameters in the model. Simulation is shown to be an effective analysis support, specially where model checking faces almost immediate state explosion in an asynchronous setting.

Refined Criteria for Gradual Typing.

Siek and Taha [2006] coined the term gradual typing to describe a theory for integrating static and dynamic typing within a single language that 1) puts the programmer in control of which regions of code are statically or dynamically typed and 2) enables the gradual evolution of code between the two typing disciplines. Since 2006, the term gradual typing has become quite popular but its meaning has become diluted to encompass anything related to the integration of static and dynamic typing. This dilution is partly the fault of the original paper, which provided an incomplete formal characterization of what it means to be gradually typed. In this paper we draw a crisp line in the sand that includes a new formal property, named the gradual guarantee, that relates the behavior of programs that differ only with respect to their type annotations. We argue that the gradual guarantee provides important guidance for designers of gradually typed languages. We survey the gradual typing literature, critiquing designs in light of the gradual guarantee. We also report on a mechanized proof that the gradual guarantee holds for the Gradually Typed Lambda Calculus.

Principal Type Schemes for Gradual Programs

Gradual typing is a discipline for integrating dynamic checking into a static type system. Since its introduction in functional languages, it has been adapted to a variety of type systems, including object-oriented, security, and substructural. This work studies its application to implicitly typed languages based on type inference. Siek and Vachharajani designed a gradual type inference system and algorithm that infers gradual types but still rejects ill-typed static programs. However, the type system requires local reasoning about type substitutions, an imperative inference algorithm, and a subtle correctness statement. This paper introduces a new approach to gradual type inference, driven by the principle that gradual inference should only produce static types. We present a static implicitly typed language, its gradual counterpart, and a type inference procedure. The gradual system types the same programs as Siek and Vachharajani, but has a modular structure amenable to extension. The language admits let-polymorphism, and its dynamics are defined by translation to the Polymorphic Blame Calculus. The principal types produced by our initial type system mask the distinction between static parametric polymorphism and polymorphism that can be attributed to gradual typing. To expose this difference, we distinguish static type parameters from gradual type parameters and reinterpret gradual type consistency accordingly. The resulting extension enables programs to be interpreted using either the polymorphic or monomorphic Blame Calculi.

The gradualizer: a methodology and algorithm for generating gradual type systems

Many languages are beginning to integrate dynamic and static typing. Siek and Taha offered gradual typing as an approach to this integration that provides a coherent and full-span migration between the two disciplines. However, the literature lacks a general methodology for designing gradually typed languages. Our first contribution is to provide a methodology for deriving the gradual type system and the compilation to the cast calculus. Based on this methodology, we present the Gradualizer, an algorithm that generates a gradual type system from a well-formed type system and also generates a compiler to the cast calculus. Our algorithm handles a large class of type systems and generates systems that are correct with respect to the formal criteria of gradual typing. We also report on an implementation of the Gradualizer that takes a type system expressed in lambda-prolog and outputs its gradually typed version and a compiler to the cast calculus in lambda-prolog.

Monotonic References for Efficient Gradual Typing

Gradual typing enables both static and dynamic typing in the same program and makes it convenient to migrate code regions between the two typing disciplines. One goal of gradual typing is to provide all the benefits of static typing, such as efficiency, in statically-typed regions. However, this goal is elusive: the standard approach to mutable references imposes run-time overhead in statically-typed regions and alternative approaches are too conservative, either statically or at run-time. In this paper we present a new semantics called monotonic references which imposes none of the run-time overhead of dynamic typing in statically typed regions. With this design, casting a reference may cause a heap cell to become more statically typed but not less. Retaining type safety is challenging with strong updates to the heap. Nevertheless, we have a mechanized proof of type safety. Further, we present blame tracking for monotonic references and prove a blame theorem.

A Bisimulation-based Method for Proving the Validity of Equations in GSOS Languages

This paper presents a bisimulation-based method for establishing the soundness of equations between terms constructed using operations whose semantics is specified by rules in the GSOS format of Bloom, Istrail and Meyer. The method is inspired by de Simones FH-bisimilarity and uses transition rules as schematic transitions in a bisimulation-like relation between open terms. The soundness of the method is proven and examples showing its applicability are provided. The proposed bisimulation-based proof method is incomplete, but the article offers some completeness results for restricted classes of GSOS specifications.

Modelling and Simulation of Asynchronous Real-Time Systems using Timed Rebeca

In this paper we propose an extension of the Rebeca language that can be used to model distributed and asynchronous systems with timing constraints. We provide the formal semantics of the language using Structural Operational Semantics, and show its expressiveness by means of examples. We developed a tool for automated translation from timed Rebeca to the Erlang language, which provides a first implementation of timed Rebeca. We can use the tool to set the parameters of timed Rebeca models, which represent the environment and component variables, and use McErlang to run multiple simulations for different settings. Timed Rebeca restricts the modeller to a pure asynchronous actor-based paradigm, where the structure of the model represents the service oriented architecture, while the computational model matches the network infrastructure. Simulation is shown to be an effective analysis support, specially where model checking faces almost immediate state explosion in an asynchronous setting.

Automatically generating the dynamic semantics of gradually typed languages

Many language designers have adopted gradual typing. However, there remains open questions regarding how to gradualize languages. Cimini and Siek (2016) created a methodology and algorithm to automatically generate the type system of a gradually typed language from a fully static version of the language. In this paper, we address the next challenge of how to automatically generate the dynamic semantics of gradually typed languages. Such languages typically use an intermediate language with explicit casts. Our first result is a methodology for generating the syntax, type system, and dynamic semantics of the intermediate language with casts. Next, we present an algorithm that formalizes and automates the methodology, given a language definition as input. We show that our approach is general enough to automatically gradualize several languages, including features such as polymorphism, recursive types and exceptions. We prove that our algorithm produces languages that satisfy the key correctness criteria of gradual typing. Finally, we implement the algorithm, generating complete specifications of gradually typed languages in lambda-Prolog, including executable interpreters.

PTRebeca: Modeling and analysis of distributed and asynchronous systems

Abstract Distributed systems exhibit probabilistic and non-deterministic behaviors and may have time constraints. Probabilistic Timed Rebeca (PTRebeca) is introduced as a timed and probabilistic actor-based language for modeling distributed real-time systems with asynchronous message passing. The semantics of PTRebeca is a Timed Markov Decision Process. In this paper, we provide SOS rules for PTRebeca, introduce a new tool-set and describe the corresponding mappings. The tool-set automatically generates a Markov Automaton from a PTRebeca model in the form of the input language of the Interactive Markov Chain Analyzer (IMCA). The IMCA can be used as a back-end model checker for performance analysis of PTRebeca models against expected reachability and probabilistic reachability properties. Comparing to the existing tool-set, proposed in the conference paper, we now have the ability of analyzing significantly larger models, and we also can add different rewards to the model. We show the applicability of our approach and efficiency of our tool by analyzing a Network on Chip architecture as a real-world case study.

A Lightweight Formalization of the Metatheory of Bisimulation-Up-To

Bisimilarity of two processes is formally established by producing a bisimulation relation that contains those two processes and obeys certain closure properties. In many situations, particularly when the underlying labeled transition system is unbounded, these bisimulation relations can be large and even infinite. The bisimulation-up-to technique has been developed to reduce the size of the relations being computed while retaining soundness, that is, the guarantee of the existence of a bisimulation. Such techniques are increasingly becoming a critical ingredient in the automated checking of bisimilarity. This paper is devoted to the formalization of the meta theory of several major bisimulation-up-to techniques for the process calculi CCS and the π-calculus (with replication). Our formalization is based on recent work on the proof theory of least and greatest fixpoints, particularly the use of relations defined (co-)inductively, and of co-inductive proofs about such relations, as implemented in the Abella theorem prover. An important feature of our formalization is that our definitions of the bisimulation-up-to relations are, in most cases, straightforward translations of published informal definitions, and our proofs clarify several technical details of the informal descriptions. Since the logic behind Abella also supports λ-tree syntax and generic reasoning using the ∇-quantifier, our treatment of the λ-calculus is both direct and natural.