CoAuto: A formal model for cooperative processes

Abstract

A formal model called CoAuto (Cooperative Automaton) is proposed to describe and analyze cooperative processes. A basic CoAuto abstracts the behaviors of a single active entity. It separates data from control states and thus, can describe various cooperation scenarios (e. g. synchronous and asynchronous) by composition in a uniform yet flexible way. The composition can be done at two different levels (i. e. data sharing and action/control sharing) and thus, more complex cooperative process can be depicted. The paper details the structural elements of CoAuto and shows how to model cooperative processes in real world and analyze some basic properties (e. g. safety and liveness). © Springer-Verlag 2004.