
The Space and Motion of Communicating Agents
Robin Milner(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 19. March 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
214 pages
978-0-521-73833-0 (ISBN)
Description
The world is increasingly populated with interactive agents distributed in space, real or abstract. These agents can be artificial, as in computing systems that manage and monitor traffic or health; or they can be natural, e.g. communicating humans, or biological cells. It is important to be able to model networks of agents in order to understand and optimise their behaviour. Robin Milner describes in this book just such a model, by presenting a unified and rigorous structural theory, based on bigraphs, for systems of interacting agents. This theory is a bridge between the existing theories of concurrent processes and the aspirations for ubiquitous systems, whose enormous size challenges our understanding. The book is reasonably self-contained mathematically, and is designed to be learned from: examples and exercises abound, solutions for the latter are provided. Like Milner's other work, this is destined to have far-reaching and profound significance.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
318 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-73833-0 (9780521738330)
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Schweitzer Classification
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Robin Milner
The Space and Motion of Communicating Agents
Book
03/2009
Cambridge University Press
€97.80
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Robin Milner is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Head of the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. He is a recipient of the A.M. Turing Award.
Content
Preface; Part I. Space: 1. The idea of bigraphs; 2. Defining bigraphs; 3. Algebra for bigraphs; 4. Relative and minimal bounds; 5. Bigraphical structure; 6. Sorting; Part II. Motion: 7. Reactions and transitions; 8. Bigraphical reactive systems; 9. Behaviour in link graphs; 10. Behavioural theory for CCS; Part III. Development: 11. Further topics; 12. Background, development and related work; Appendices: Appendix 1. Technical detail; Appendix 2. Solutions to exercises; Bibliography; Index; Glossary of terms and symbols.