A Theory of Processes with Durational Actions

A 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. 1. An extended version of this work will appear under the same title in Theoretical Computer Science. This work has been partially supported by Esprit BRA n. 8130 LOMAPS, by MURST and CNR. 2. Department of Mathematics, University of Bologna, Piazza Porta S. Donato 5, 40127 Bologna, Italy.