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Recursive Petri nets

Theory and application to discrete event systems

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Abstract

In order to design and analyse complex systems, modelers need formal models with two contradictory requirements: a high expressivity and the decidability of behavioural property checking. Here we present and develop the theory of such a model, the recursive Petri nets. First, we show that the mechanisms supported by recursive Petri nets enable to model patterns of discrete event systems related to the dynamic structure of processes. Furthermore, we prove that these patterns cannot be modelled by ordinary Petri nets. Then we study the decidability of some problems: reachability, finiteness and bisimulation. At last, we develop the concept of linear invariants for this kind of nets and we design efficient computations specifically tailored to take advantage of their structure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paris-Dauphine, Place du Maréchal De Lattre de Tassigny, 75775, Paris Cedex 16, France

    Serge Haddad

  2. Université Paris VI, Jussieu, 4, Place Jussieu, 75252, Paris Cedex 05, France

    Denis Poitrenaud

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  1. Serge Haddad
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  2. Denis Poitrenaud
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Correspondence to Denis Poitrenaud.

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Haddad, S., Poitrenaud, D. Recursive Petri nets. Acta Informatica 44, 463–508 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00236-007-0055-y

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