An Introduction to Reflective Petri Nets [chapter]

Lorenzo Capra, Walter Cazzola
Handbook of Research on Discrete Event Simulation Environments  
The design of dynamic (adaptable) discrete-event systems calls for adequate modeling formalisms and tools able to manage possible changes occurring during system's lifecycle. A common approach is to pollute design with details that do not regard the current system behavior, rather its evolution. That hampers analysis, reuse and maintenance in general. A Petri net based reflective model (based on classical PN) was recently proposed to support dynamic discrete-event system's design, and was
more » ... d to dynamic workflow's management. Behind there is the idea that keeping functional aspects separated from evolutionary ones, and applying evolution to the (current) system only when necessary, results in a simple formal model on which the ability of verifying properties typical of Petri nets is preserved. On the perspective of implementing in the short time a discrete-event simulation engine, reflective Petri nets are provided in this paper with a timed state-transition graph semantics, defined in terms of a Markov process.
doi:10.4018/978-1-60566-774-4.ch009 fatcat:udxo7vrdynghpicqxeo7cekbby