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.

Robin Milner presents a unified structural theory for modelling networks of agents that is destined to have far-reaching significance.

About the Author
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.


Book Information
ISBN 9780521738330
Author Robin Milner
Format Paperback
Page Count 214
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 320g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 152mm * 12mm