Conversation Types

We present a type theory for analyzing concurrent multiparty interactions as found in service-oriented computing. Our theory introduces a novel and flexible type structure, able to uniformly describe both the internal and the interface behavior of systems, referred respectively as choreographies and contracts in web-services terminology. The notion of conversation builds on the fundamental concept of session, but generalizes it along directions up to now unexplored; in particular, conversation types discipline interactions in conversations while accounting for dynamical join and leave of an unanticipated number of participants. We prove that well-typed systems never violate the prescribed conversation constraints. We also present techniques to ensure progress of systems involving several interleaved conversations, a previously open problem.