A theory of processes with durational actions

AbstractA new bisimulation based semantics, called performance equivalence, is proposed for a process algebra equipped with the TCSP parallel operator. This semantics relies on the basic assumption that actions are time-consuming, where their duration is statically fixed. Performance equivalence equates systems whenever they perform the same actions in the same amount of time, thus introducing a simple form of performance evaluation in process algebras. A comparison with other equivalences is provided; in particular, we show that performance equivalence is strictly finer than step bisimulation equivalence and strictly coarser than partial ordering bisimulation equivalence