Dynamic Input/Output Automata: A Formal Model for Dynamic Systems

Abstract

We present a mathematical state-machine model, the Dynamic I/O Automaton (DIOA) model, for defining and analyzing dynamic systems of interacting components. The systems we consider are dynamic in two senses: (1) components can be created and destroyed as computation proceeds, and (2) the events in which the components may participate may change. The new model admits a notion of external system behavior, based on sets of traces. It also features a parallel composition operator for dynamic systems, which respects external behavior, and a notion of simulation from one dynamic system to another, which can be used to prove that one system implements the other.