This research is aimed at obtaining a better understanding of mathematical models for networks of concurrent processes, and the relationships between such models. Of particular interest is the relationship between "CCS/CSP-style" models and "dataflow-style" models. The primary tool to be used in this investigation is a collection of mathematical structures called concurrent transition systems. Concurrent transition systems, are a generalization of ordinary nondeterministic transition systems into which concurrency information has been incorporated in a convenient fashion. The basic approach consists of three steps: (1) use concurrent transition systems to define a general operational model of concurrent processes, called labeled processes, in which network-building operations on processes have simple algebraic definitions; (2) define various ways of mapping the labeled process model to more abstract models; and (3) investigate how the network-building operations translate under these abstraction mappings. Preliminary work has resulted in a simple characterization of a subclass of labeled processes, called Kahn processes, which are "dataflow-like" processes with timing-independent, functional behavior. From this characterization, a simple and direct proof is obtained, of the fact that network interconnection of Kahn processes obeys Kahn's fixed point principle.
