Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Failure Semantics for the Exchange of Information in Multi-Agent Systems

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
CONCUR 2000 — Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1877))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

In this paper, we present a semantic theory for the exchange of information in multi-agent systems. We define a concurrent programming language for systems of agents that maintain their own private stores of information and that interact with each other by means of a synchronous communication mechanism that allows for the exchange of information. The semantics of the language, which is based on a generalisation of traditional failure semantics, is shown to be fully-abstract with respect to observing of each terminating computation its final global store of information.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. J. A. Bergstra and J. W. Klop. Process algebra for synchronous communication. Information and Control, 60:109–137, 1984.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. F. van Breughel. Failures, finiteness and full abstraction. In S. Brookes and M. Mislove, editors, Proceedings of the Thirteenth Conference on the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Semantics, volume 6 of Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science. Elsevier, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  3. L. Brim, D. Gilbert, J.-M. Jacquet, and M. Křetínský. A process algebra for synchronous concurrent constraint programming. In M. Hanus and M. Rodriquez-Artalejo, editors, Proceedings of the fifth Conference on Algebraic and Logic Programming, volume 1139 of LNCS, pages 165–178. Springer-Verlag, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  4. S. D. Brookes, C. A. R. Hoare, and W. Roscoe. A theory of communicating sequential processes. Journal of ACM, 31:499–560, 1984.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. R. M. van Eijk, F. S. de Boer, W. van der Hoek, and J.-J.Ch. Meyer. A language for modular information-passing agents. In K. R. Apt, editor, CWI Quarterly, Special issue on Constraint Programming, volume 11, pages 273–297. CWI, Amsterdam, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  6. R. M. van Eijk, F. S. de Boer, W. van der Hoek, and J.-J.Ch. Meyer. Systems of communicating agents. In Henri Prade, editor, Proceedings of the 13th biennial European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI-98), pages 293–297, Brighton, UK, 1998. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  7. R. M. van Eijk, F. S. de Boer, W. van der Hoek, and J.-J.Ch. Meyer. Information-passing and belief revision in multi-agent systems. In J. P. M. Müller, M. P. Singh, and A. S. Rao, editors, Intelligent Agents V — Proceedings of 5th International Workshop on Agent Theories, Architectures, and Languages (ATAL’98), volume 1555 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, pages 29–45. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, 1999.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  8. T. Finin, D. McKay, R. Fritzson, and R. McEntire. KQML: An Information and Knowledge Exchange Protocol. In Kazuhiro Fuchi and Toshio Yokoi, editors, Knowledge Building and Knowledge Sharing. Ohmsha and IOS Press, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  9. J. Y. Halpern and Y. Moses. A guide to the completeness and complexity for modal logics of knowledge and belief. Artificial Intelligence, 54:319–379, 1992.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. L. Henkin, J. D. Monk, and A. Tarski. Cylindric Algebras (Part I). North-Holland Publishing, Amsterdam, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  11. C. A. R. Hoare. Communicating sequential processes. Communications of the ACM, 21(8):666–677, 1978.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  12. Jean-Hugues Réty. Langages concurrents avec contraintes, communication par messages et distribution. PhD thesis, University of Orleans, France, 1997.

    Google Scholar 

  13. V. A. Saraswat. Concurrent Constraint Programming. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  14. M. Wooldridge. Verifiable semantics for agent communication languages. In Proceedings 3rd International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems (ICMAS’98), pages 349–356, Los Alamitos, California, 1998. IEEE Computer Society.

    Google Scholar 

  15. M. Wooldridge and N. Jennings. Intelligent agents: theory and practice. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 10(2):115–152, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508, TB Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Frank S. de Boer, Rogier M. van Eijk, Wiebe van der Hoek & John-Jules Ch. Meyer

Authors
  1. Frank S. de Boer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rogier M. van Eijk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Wiebe van der Hoek
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. John-Jules Ch. Meyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, 220 Pond Laboratory, University Park, PA, 16802-6106, USA

    Catuscia Palamidessi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

de Boer, F.S., van Eijk, R.M., van der Hoek, W., Meyer, JJ.C. (2000). Failure Semantics for the Exchange of Information in Multi-Agent Systems. In: Palamidessi, C. (eds) CONCUR 2000 — Concurrency Theory. CONCUR 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1877. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44618-4_17

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-44618-4_17

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67897-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44618-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation