Skip to main content

Ivan Lanese

AICCON - Associazione Italiana per la Promozione della Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit, Department of Computer Science, Faculty Member

Followers

16

Following

9

Co-authors

9

Public Views

Associate professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of University of Bologna since 2018 (previously researcher since 2011), part of the Focus research group, joint group between University of Bologna and INRIA Sophia Antipolis. He works in the field of theoretical computer science and formal methods. Recently he has focused on studying reversible computing in a concurrent setting. In this area he has also been vice-chair of the European COST Action "Reversible computation - extending horizons of computing". Author of more than 50 papers in international conferences and journals in the area, Ivan Lanese has an h-index of 18 according to Scopus.

less

Adrian Francalanza

University of Malta

Middlesex University

Vaidas Giedrimas

Rosario Pugliese

Università degli Studi di Firenze (University of Florence)

Universidade de Brasília - UnB

AICCON - Associazione Italiana per la Promozione della Cultura della Cooperazione e del Non Profit

University of Cyprus

IIT Kanpur

Syddansk Universitet

Interests

Uploads

Papers by Ivan Lanese

A Case Study for Reversible Computing: Reversible Debugging of Concurrent Programs

Reversible Computation: Extending Horizons of Computing

Reversible computing allows one to run programs not only in the usual forward direction, but also... more Reversible computing allows one to run programs not only in the usual forward direction, but also backward. A main application area for reversible computing is debugging, where one can use reversibility to go backward from a visible misbehaviour towards the bug causing it. While reversible debugging of sequential systems is well understood, reversible debugging of concurrent and distributed systems is less settled. We present here two approaches for debugging concurrent programs, one based on backtracking, which undoes actions in reverse order of execution, and one based on causal consistency, which allows one to undo any action provided that its consequences, if any, are undone beforehand. The first approach tackles an imperative language with shared memory, while the second one considers a core of the functional message-passing language Erlang. Both the approaches are based on solid formal foundations.

Static versus dynamic reversibility in CCS

Acta Informatica

I.: PRISMA: A parametric calculus based on synchronization algebras with mobility

Insights emerged while comparing three models for global computing

Dagstuhl Seminars, 2005

In this paper we outline the main ideas emerged while studying a chain of mappings from Fusion Ca... more In this paper we outline the main ideas emerged while studying a chain of mappings from Fusion Calculus to logic programming, using Synchronized Hyperedge Replacement (with both Hoare and Milner synchronizations) as intermediate step. We aim more at discussing the ideas behind the mappings than at presenting their technical details.

Concurrent and Located Synchronizations in pi-Calculus

Sofsem, 2007

We present two novel semantics for π-calculus. The first allows one to observe on which channel a... more We present two novel semantics for π-calculus. The first allows one to observe on which channel a synchronization is performed, while the second allows concurrent actions, provided that they do not compete for resources. We present both a reduction and a labeled semantics, and show that they induce the same behavioral equivalence. As our main result we show that bisimilarity

Bisimulations in SSCC

This report studies different definitions of bisimulation within the Stream-Based Service-Centere... more

Synchronization Strategies for Global Computing Models

Retractable Contracts

Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, 2016

In calculi for modelling communication protocols, internal and external choices play dual roles. ... more In calculi for modelling communication protocols, internal and external choices play dual roles. Two external choices can be viewed naturally as dual too, as they represent an agreement between the communicating parties. If the interaction fails, the past agreements are good candidates as points where to roll back, in order to take a different agreement. We propose a variant of contracts with synchronous rollbacks to agreement points in case of deadlock. The new calculus is equipped with a compliance relation which is shown to be decidable.

Causal-Consistent Reversibility in a Tuple-Based Distributed Language

Causal-consistent reversibility is a natural way of undoing concurrent computations. We study cau... more Causal-consistent reversibility is a natural way of undoing concurrent computations. We study causal-consistent reversibility in the context of µKLAIM, a formal coordination language based on distributed tuple spaces. We consider both uncontrolled reversibility, suitable to study the basic properties of the reversibility mechanism, and controlled reversibility based on a rollback operator, more suitable for programming applications. The causality structure of the language, and thus the definition of its reversible semantics, differs from all the reversible languages in the literature because of its generative communication paradigm. In particular, the reversible behavior of µKLAIM read primitive, reading a tuple without consuming it, cannot be matched using channel-based communication. We illustrate the reversible extensions of µKLAIM on a simple, but realistic, application scenario.

Causal-consistent reversibility

On graph(ic) encodings

PRISMA: A parametric calculus based on synchronization algebras with mobility

We present PRISMA, a parametric framework for modeling distributed and mobile systems with differ... more We present PRISMA, a parametric framework for modeling distributed and mobile systems with different communication policies, defined as synchronization algebras with mobility (SAMs). This allows to choose each time the SAM that corresponds to the real synchronization used, and also to prove properties for different synchronization models at once. The paradigm we propose is based on process calculi to facilitate the reuse of techniques and results from the vast literature. We define both the operational semantics and a compositional observational semantics for PRISMA. We present a detailed case study on Fusion Calculus and many different SAMs as examples. Finally, we exploit basic categorical constructions to relate and compose SAMs.

Summary 3: On Graph(ic) Encodings

This paper is an informal summary of different encoding techniques from process calculi and distr... more This paper is an informal summary of different encoding techniques from process calculi and distributed formalisms to graphic frameworks. The survey includes the use of solo diagrams, term graphs, synchronized hyperedge replacement systems, bigraphs, tile models and interactive systems, all presented at the Dagstuhl Seminar 04241. The common theme of all techniques recalled here is having a graphic presentation that, at the same time, gives both an intuitive visual rendering (of processes, states, etc.) and a rigorous mathematical framework.

Normal Forms for Stateless Connectors

The conceptual separation between computation and coordination in distributed computing systems m... more The conceptual separation between computation and coordination in distributed computing systems motivates the use of peculiar entities commonly called connectors, whose task is managing the interaction among distributed components. Different kinds of connectors exist in the literature at different levels of abstraction. We focus on a basic algebra of connectors which is expressive enough to model e.g. all the architectural connectors of CommUnity. We first define the operational, observational and denotational semantics of connectors, then we show that the observational and denotational semantics coincide and finally we give a complete normal-form axiomatization.

On the Expressiveness of Polyadicity in Higher-Order Process Calculi (Extended Abstract) ?

In higher-order process calculi the values exchanged in communications may contain processes. We ... more In higher-order process calculi the values exchanged in communications may contain processes. We describe a study of the expressive power of strictly higher-order process calculi, i.e. calculi in which only process passing is allowed and no name-passing is present. In this setting, the polyadicity (i.e. the number of parameters) allowed in communications is shown to induce a hierarchy of calculi of strictly increasing expressiveness: a higher-order calculus with n-adic communication cannot be encoded into a calculus with n − 1-adic communication. In this note we outline this result, and discuss the conditions under which it holds. Introduction. Higher-order process calculi are formal languages for concurrency in which processes can be communicated. They have been put forward in the early 1990s, with CHOCS [1] and Plain CHOCS [2], the Higher-Order π-calculus [3], and others. Recent proposals of higher-order calculi include the Kell calculus [4] and Homer [5]. Higher-order, or process-passing, concurrency is often presented as an alternative paradigm to the first order, or name-passing, concurrency of the π-calculus for the description of mobile systems. Higher-order calculi are inspired by, and are formally closer to, the λ-calculus, whose basic computational step-β-reduction-involves term instantiation. An important criterion for assessing the significance of a paradigm is its expressiveness. The expressiveness of higher-order communication has received little attention in the literature; previous works are mostly concerned about issues of relative expressiveness between higher-and first-order calculi. A good example is [6] in which a tight correspondence between name-passing calculi based on internal mobility and processpassing calculi is shown. In a previous work, we have studied expressiveness and decidability issues for HOCORE, a core calculus for higher order concurrency [7]. HOCORE is a strictly higher-order process calculus, in that only the operators necessary to obtain higher-order communications are retained. Notably, no name-passing features are present. The grammar of HOCORE is: P ::= a(x). P | aP | P P | x | 0 An input prefixed process a(x). P can receive on name (or channel) a a process that will be substituted in the place of x in the body P ; an output message aP can send P on Research partially supported by the INRIA Équipe Associeé BACON.

Fault Model Design Space for Cooperative Concurrency

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2014

This paper critically discusses the different choices that have to be made when defining a fault ... more This paper critically discusses the different choices that have to be made when defining a fault model for an object-oriented programming language. We consider in particular the ABS language, and analyze the interplay between the fault model and the main features of ABS, namely the cooperative concurrency model, based on asynchronous method invocations whose return results via futures, and its emphasis on static analysis based on invariants.

Developing correct, distributed, adaptive software

Science of Computer Programming, 2015

verify distributed, adaptive software systems. The cornerstone of our framework is the use of cho... more verify distributed, adaptive software systems. The cornerstone of our framework is the use of choreography languages, which allow us to obtain correctness by construction. abstract tools to design real systems, while techniques based on abstract interpretation and on dynamic verification are integrated in our framework to reduce the complexity of verification.

Graph Transformations and Process Algebras for Modeling Distributed and Mobile Systems

Recently there has been a lot of research, combining concepts of process algebra with those of th... more Recently there has been a lot of research, combining concepts of process algebra with those of the theory of graph grammars and graph transformation systems. Both can be viewed as general frameworks in which one can specify and reason about concurrent and distributed systems. There are many areas where both theories overlap and this reaches much further than just using graphs to give a graphic representation to processes. Processes in a communication network can be seen in two different ways: as terms in an ...

Graph Transformations and Process Algebras for Modeling Distributed and Mobile Systems

Recently there has been a lot of research, combining concepts of process algebra with those of th... more Recently there has been a lot of research, combining concepts of process algebra with those of the theory of graph grammars and graph transformation systems. Both can be viewed as general frameworks in which one can specify and reason about concurrent and distributed systems. There are many areas where both theories overlap and this reaches much further than just using graphs to give a graphic representation to processes. Processes in a communication network can be seen in two different ways: as terms in an ...

Amending Choreographies

by Fabrizio Montesi and Ivan Lanese

Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, 2013

Choreographies are global descriptions of system behaviors, from which the local behavior of each... more Choreographies are global descriptions of system behaviors, from which the local behavior of each endpoint entity can be obtained automatically through projection. To guarantee that its projection is correct, i.e. it has the same behaviors of the original choreography, a choreography usually has to respect some coherency conditions. This restricts the set of choreographies that can be projected.

A Case Study for Reversible Computing: Reversible Debugging of Concurrent Programs

Reversible Computation: Extending Horizons of Computing

Reversible computing allows one to run programs not only in the usual forward direction, but also... more Reversible computing allows one to run programs not only in the usual forward direction, but also backward. A main application area for reversible computing is debugging, where one can use reversibility to go backward from a visible misbehaviour towards the bug causing it. While reversible debugging of sequential systems is well understood, reversible debugging of concurrent and distributed systems is less settled. We present here two approaches for debugging concurrent programs, one based on backtracking, which undoes actions in reverse order of execution, and one based on causal consistency, which allows one to undo any action provided that its consequences, if any, are undone beforehand. The first approach tackles an imperative language with shared memory, while the second one considers a core of the functional message-passing language Erlang. Both the approaches are based on solid formal foundations.

Static versus dynamic reversibility in CCS

Acta Informatica

I.: PRISMA: A parametric calculus based on synchronization algebras with mobility

Insights emerged while comparing three models for global computing

Dagstuhl Seminars, 2005

In this paper we outline the main ideas emerged while studying a chain of mappings from Fusion Ca... more In this paper we outline the main ideas emerged while studying a chain of mappings from Fusion Calculus to logic programming, using Synchronized Hyperedge Replacement (with both Hoare and Milner synchronizations) as intermediate step. We aim more at discussing the ideas behind the mappings than at presenting their technical details.

Concurrent and Located Synchronizations in pi-Calculus

Sofsem, 2007

We present two novel semantics for π-calculus. The first allows one to observe on which channel a... more We present two novel semantics for π-calculus. The first allows one to observe on which channel a synchronization is performed, while the second allows concurrent actions, provided that they do not compete for resources. We present both a reduction and a labeled semantics, and show that they induce the same behavioral equivalence. As our main result we show that bisimilarity

Bisimulations in SSCC

This report studies different definitions of bisimulation within the Stream-Based Service-Centere... more

Synchronization Strategies for Global Computing Models

Retractable Contracts

Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, 2016

In calculi for modelling communication protocols, internal and external choices play dual roles. ... more In calculi for modelling communication protocols, internal and external choices play dual roles. Two external choices can be viewed naturally as dual too, as they represent an agreement between the communicating parties. If the interaction fails, the past agreements are good candidates as points where to roll back, in order to take a different agreement. We propose a variant of contracts with synchronous rollbacks to agreement points in case of deadlock. The new calculus is equipped with a compliance relation which is shown to be decidable.

Causal-Consistent Reversibility in a Tuple-Based Distributed Language

Causal-consistent reversibility is a natural way of undoing concurrent computations. We study cau... more Causal-consistent reversibility is a natural way of undoing concurrent computations. We study causal-consistent reversibility in the context of µKLAIM, a formal coordination language based on distributed tuple spaces. We consider both uncontrolled reversibility, suitable to study the basic properties of the reversibility mechanism, and controlled reversibility based on a rollback operator, more suitable for programming applications. The causality structure of the language, and thus the definition of its reversible semantics, differs from all the reversible languages in the literature because of its generative communication paradigm. In particular, the reversible behavior of µKLAIM read primitive, reading a tuple without consuming it, cannot be matched using channel-based communication. We illustrate the reversible extensions of µKLAIM on a simple, but realistic, application scenario.

Causal-consistent reversibility

On graph(ic) encodings

PRISMA: A parametric calculus based on synchronization algebras with mobility

We present PRISMA, a parametric framework for modeling distributed and mobile systems with differ... more We present PRISMA, a parametric framework for modeling distributed and mobile systems with different communication policies, defined as synchronization algebras with mobility (SAMs). This allows to choose each time the SAM that corresponds to the real synchronization used, and also to prove properties for different synchronization models at once. The paradigm we propose is based on process calculi to facilitate the reuse of techniques and results from the vast literature. We define both the operational semantics and a compositional observational semantics for PRISMA. We present a detailed case study on Fusion Calculus and many different SAMs as examples. Finally, we exploit basic categorical constructions to relate and compose SAMs.

Summary 3: On Graph(ic) Encodings

This paper is an informal summary of different encoding techniques from process calculi and distr... more This paper is an informal summary of different encoding techniques from process calculi and distributed formalisms to graphic frameworks. The survey includes the use of solo diagrams, term graphs, synchronized hyperedge replacement systems, bigraphs, tile models and interactive systems, all presented at the Dagstuhl Seminar 04241. The common theme of all techniques recalled here is having a graphic presentation that, at the same time, gives both an intuitive visual rendering (of processes, states, etc.) and a rigorous mathematical framework.

Normal Forms for Stateless Connectors

The conceptual separation between computation and coordination in distributed computing systems m... more The conceptual separation between computation and coordination in distributed computing systems motivates the use of peculiar entities commonly called connectors, whose task is managing the interaction among distributed components. Different kinds of connectors exist in the literature at different levels of abstraction. We focus on a basic algebra of connectors which is expressive enough to model e.g. all the architectural connectors of CommUnity. We first define the operational, observational and denotational semantics of connectors, then we show that the observational and denotational semantics coincide and finally we give a complete normal-form axiomatization.

On the Expressiveness of Polyadicity in Higher-Order Process Calculi (Extended Abstract) ?

In higher-order process calculi the values exchanged in communications may contain processes. We ... more In higher-order process calculi the values exchanged in communications may contain processes. We describe a study of the expressive power of strictly higher-order process calculi, i.e. calculi in which only process passing is allowed and no name-passing is present. In this setting, the polyadicity (i.e. the number of parameters) allowed in communications is shown to induce a hierarchy of calculi of strictly increasing expressiveness: a higher-order calculus with n-adic communication cannot be encoded into a calculus with n − 1-adic communication. In this note we outline this result, and discuss the conditions under which it holds. Introduction. Higher-order process calculi are formal languages for concurrency in which processes can be communicated. They have been put forward in the early 1990s, with CHOCS [1] and Plain CHOCS [2], the Higher-Order π-calculus [3], and others. Recent proposals of higher-order calculi include the Kell calculus [4] and Homer [5]. Higher-order, or process-passing, concurrency is often presented as an alternative paradigm to the first order, or name-passing, concurrency of the π-calculus for the description of mobile systems. Higher-order calculi are inspired by, and are formally closer to, the λ-calculus, whose basic computational step-β-reduction-involves term instantiation. An important criterion for assessing the significance of a paradigm is its expressiveness. The expressiveness of higher-order communication has received little attention in the literature; previous works are mostly concerned about issues of relative expressiveness between higher-and first-order calculi. A good example is [6] in which a tight correspondence between name-passing calculi based on internal mobility and processpassing calculi is shown. In a previous work, we have studied expressiveness and decidability issues for HOCORE, a core calculus for higher order concurrency [7]. HOCORE is a strictly higher-order process calculus, in that only the operators necessary to obtain higher-order communications are retained. Notably, no name-passing features are present. The grammar of HOCORE is: P ::= a(x). P | aP | P P | x | 0 An input prefixed process a(x). P can receive on name (or channel) a a process that will be substituted in the place of x in the body P ; an output message aP can send P on Research partially supported by the INRIA Équipe Associeé BACON.

Fault Model Design Space for Cooperative Concurrency

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2014

This paper critically discusses the different choices that have to be made when defining a fault ... more This paper critically discusses the different choices that have to be made when defining a fault model for an object-oriented programming language. We consider in particular the ABS language, and analyze the interplay between the fault model and the main features of ABS, namely the cooperative concurrency model, based on asynchronous method invocations whose return results via futures, and its emphasis on static analysis based on invariants.

Developing correct, distributed, adaptive software

Science of Computer Programming, 2015

verify distributed, adaptive software systems. The cornerstone of our framework is the use of cho... more verify distributed, adaptive software systems. The cornerstone of our framework is the use of choreography languages, which allow us to obtain correctness by construction. abstract tools to design real systems, while techniques based on abstract interpretation and on dynamic verification are integrated in our framework to reduce the complexity of verification.

Graph Transformations and Process Algebras for Modeling Distributed and Mobile Systems

Recently there has been a lot of research, combining concepts of process algebra with those of th... more Recently there has been a lot of research, combining concepts of process algebra with those of the theory of graph grammars and graph transformation systems. Both can be viewed as general frameworks in which one can specify and reason about concurrent and distributed systems. There are many areas where both theories overlap and this reaches much further than just using graphs to give a graphic representation to processes. Processes in a communication network can be seen in two different ways: as terms in an ...

Graph Transformations and Process Algebras for Modeling Distributed and Mobile Systems

Recently there has been a lot of research, combining concepts of process algebra with those of th... more Recently there has been a lot of research, combining concepts of process algebra with those of the theory of graph grammars and graph transformation systems. Both can be viewed as general frameworks in which one can specify and reason about concurrent and distributed systems. There are many areas where both theories overlap and this reaches much further than just using graphs to give a graphic representation to processes. Processes in a communication network can be seen in two different ways: as terms in an ...

Amending Choreographies

by Fabrizio Montesi and Ivan Lanese

Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, 2013

Choreographies are global descriptions of system behaviors, from which the local behavior of each... more Choreographies are global descriptions of system behaviors, from which the local behavior of each endpoint entity can be obtained automatically through projection. To guarantee that its projection is correct, i.e. it has the same behaviors of the original choreography, a choreography usually has to respect some coherency conditions. This restricts the set of choreographies that can be projected.