%0 Journal Article
%@ 0098-5589
%A Tribastone, Mirco
%A Gilmore, Stephen
%A Hillston, Jane
%D 2012
%F eprints:2601
%I IEEE Computer Society
%J IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
%K Markov processes; Modeling and prediction; ordinary differential equations  
%N 1
%P 205-219
%T Scalable differential analysis of process algebra models
%U http://eprints.imtlucca.it/2601/
%V 38
%X The exact performance analysis of large-scale software systems with discrete-state approaches is difficult because of the well-known problem of state-space explosion. This paper considers this problem with regard to the stochastic process algebra PEPA, presenting a deterministic approximation to the underlying Markov chain model based on ordinary differential equations. The accuracy of the approximation is assessed by means of a substantial case study of a distributed multithreaded application.