Algebraically structured colored Petri nets to model sequential processes

IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern B Cybern. 1997;27(4):681-6. doi: 10.1109/3477.604112.

Abstract

Sequential processes can hardly be modeled with Colored Petri Nets (CPN). Their standard functions (such as "Succ" and "Prec") can only describe simple cases whereas modeling a complex sequence requires the definition of a function via a cumbersome and static table. In order to overcome these limitations, we first introduce a mixed structure based upon CPN and FIFO queues; then, we define an isomorphism between the set of colors and a finite field Z/pZ enabling symbolic calculation using polynomials associated with arcs instead of linear functions mapping sets into sets. Finally, several examples illustrate their modeling capabilities including failure recovery.