Integer Linear Programming and the Analysis of Some Petri Net Problems

A class of Petri nets (called type \cal L Petri nets in this paper) whose reachability sets can be characterized by integer linear programming is defined. Such Petri nets include the classes of conflict-free , normal , BPP , trap-circuit , and extended trap-circuit Petri nets, which have been extensively studied in the literature. We demonstrate that being of type \cal L is invariant with respect to a number of Petri net operations, using which Petri nets can be pieced together to form larger ones. We also show in this paper that for type \cal L Petri nets, the model checking problem for a number of temporal logics is reducible to the integer linear programming problem, yielding an NP upper bound for the model checking problem. Our work supplements some of the previous results concerning model checking for Petri nets. Received October 1997, and in revised form July 1998.     

Bounds on the Number of Markings Consistent With Label Observations in Petri Nets

In this paper, we consider state estimation in discrete-event systems (DESs) modeled by labeled Petri nets and present upper bounds on the number of system states (or markings) that are consistent with an observed sequence of labels. Our analysis is applicable to Petri nets that may have nondeterministic transitions (i.e., transitions that share the same label) and/or unobservable transitions (i.e., transitions that are associated with the null label). More specifically, given knowledge of a labeled Petri net structure and its initial state, we show that the number of consistent markings in a Petri net with nondeterministic transitions is at most polynomial in the length of the observation sequence (i.e., polynomial in the number of labels observed). This polynomial dependency of the number of consistent markings on the length of the observation sequence also applies to Petri nets with unobservable transitions under the assumption that their unobservable subnets are structurally bounded. The bounds on the number of markings established in this paper imply that the state estimation problem in labeled Petri nets can be solved with complexity that is polynomial in the length of the observation sequence.     

Polynomial-time algorithm for the legal firing sequences problem of a type of synchronous composition Petri nets

As far as we know, the testing problem of legal firing sequence is NP-complete for gener-al Petri net, the related results of this problem on the polynomial-time solvability are limited only to some special net classes, such as persistent Petri nets, conflict-free Petri nets and state machine Petri nets. In this paper, the language properties of synchronous composition net are discussed. Based on these results, the testing algorithm polynomial-time complexity for legal firing sequence is proposed. Therefore, net classification of polynomial-time solvability for testing legal firing sequence is extended.     

Deciding a class of path formulas for conflict-free petri nets

The aim of this paper is to develop a unified approach for deriving complexity results for problems concerning conflict-free Petri nets. To do so, we first define a class of formulas for paths in Petri nets. We then show that answering the satisfiability problem for conflict-free Petri nets is tantamount to solving a system of linear inequalities (which is known to be in P). Since a wide spectrum of Petri net problems (including various fairness-related problems) can be reduced to the satisfiability problem in a straightforward manner, our approach offers an umbrella under which many Petri net problems for conflict-free Petri nets can be shown to be solvable in polynomial time. As a side-product, our analysis provides evidence as to why detecting unboundedness for conflict-free Petri nets is easier (provided P ≠ NP) than for normal and sinkless Petri nets (which are two classes that properly contain conflict-free Petri nets). A preliminary version was presented at the 14th International Conference on Application and Theory of Petri Nets, Chicago, IL, USA, June 1993.     

Complexity of some problems in Petri nets

We consider the complexity of several standard problems for various classes of Petri nets. In particular, the reachability problem, the liveness problem and the k-boundedness problems are analyzed. Some polynomial time and polynomial space complete problems for Petri nets are given. We then show that the problem of deciding whether a Petri net is persistent is reducible to reachability, partially answering a question of Keller. Reachability and boundedness are proved to be undecidable for the Time Petri net introduced by Merlin. Also presented is the concept of controllability, i.e., the capability of a set of transitions to disable a given transition. We show that the controllability problem requires exponential space, even for 1-bounded nets.     

Executability of scenarios in Petri nets

In this paper, we show that it can be tested in polynomial time as to whether a scenario is an execution of a Petri net. This holds for a wide variety of Petri net classes, ranging from elementary nets to general inhibitor nets. Scenarios are given by causal structures expressing causal dependencies and concurrency among events. In the case of elementary nets and of place/transition nets, such causal structures are partial orders among transition occurrences. For several extended Petri net classes, the extension of partial orders to stratified order structures is considered.The algorithms are based on the representation of the non-sequential behavior of Petri nets by so-called token flow functions and a characterization of Petri net executions called token flow property. This property allows nontrivial transformations into flow optimization problems, which can be solved in polynomial time. The paper is a revised, consolidated and extended version of the conference papers [G. Juhás, R. Lorenz, J. Desel, Can I execute my scenario in your net?, in: G. Ciardo, P. Darondeau (Eds.), ICATPN, in: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 2005, pp. 289–308; R. Lorenz, S. Mauser, R. Bergenthum, Testing the Executability of Scenarios in General Inhibitor Nets, in: ACSD, IEEE Computer Society, 2007, pp. 167–176] and includes parts of the habilitation thesis [R. Lorenz, Szenario-basierte Verifikation und Synthese von Perinetzen: Theorie und Anwendungen, Habilitation, 2006].     

On languages specified by relative acceptance

For any language A, the class NP(A) of languages accepted in polynomial time by nondeterministic oracle machines with A as oracle set is characterized in terms of the regular sets and the operations of homomorphic replication and intersection. A similar characterization is obtained for the class EXRUD(A) of languages that are extended rudimentary in A. Other classes which can be similarly characterized are described.     

Well-structured languages

This paper introduces the notion of well-structured language. A well-structured language can be defined by a labelled well-structured transition system, equipped with an upward-closed set of accepting states. That peculiar class of transition systems has been extensively studied in the field of computer-aided verification, where it has direct an important applications. Petri nets, and their monotonic extensions (like Petri nets with non-blocking arcs or Petri nets with transfer arcs), for instance, are special subclasses of well-structured transition systems. We show that the class of well-structured languages enjoy several important closure properties. We propose several pumping lemmata that are applicable respectively to the whole class of well-structured languages and to the classes of languages recognized by Petri nets or Petri nets with non-blocking arcs. These pumping lemmata allow us to characterize the limits in the expressiveness of these classes of language. Furthermore, we exploit the pumping lemmata to strictly separate the expressive power of Petri nets, Petri nets with non-blocking arcs and Petri nets with transfer arcs.     

Determinization of timed Petri nets behaviors

In this paper we are interested in sequentialization of formal power series with coefficients in the semiring \((\mathbb {R}\cup \{- \infty \},\max ,+)\) which represent the behavior of timed Petri nets. Several approaches make it possible to derive nondeterministic (max, + ) automata modeling safe timed Petri nets. Their nondeterminism is a serious drawback since determinism is a crucial property for numerous results on (max, + ) automata (in particular, for applications to performance evaluation and control) and existing procedures for determinization succeed only for restrictive classes of (max, + ) automata. We present a natural semi-algorithm for determinization of behaviors based on the semantics of bounded timed Petri nets. The resulting deterministic (max, + ) automata can be infinite, but a sufficient condition called strong liveness is proposed to ensure the termination of the semi-algorithm. It is shown that strong liveness is closely related to bounded fairness, which has been widely studied for Petri nets and other models for concurrency. Moreover, if the net cannot be sequentialized we propose a restriction of its logical behavior so that the sufficient condition becomes satisfied for the restricted net. The restriction is based on the synchronous product with non injectively labeled scheduler nets that are built in an incremental hierarchical way from simple scheduler nets.     

An equivalence theorem for labeled marked graphs

Petri nets and their languages are a useful model of systems exhibiting concurrent behavior. The sequential language associated with a given Petri net S consists of all possible firing sequences of S, where each element of a firing sequence is a single transition. The concurrent language associated with S consists of all possible concurrent firing sequences of S, where each element of a concurrent firing sequence is a set of transitions. The sequential language and the concurrent language associated with S are denoted by (L)(S) and (π)(S), respectively. In this paper, we consider an important special ease of Petri nets, called labeled marked graphs. The main result derived in this paper states that if Γ₁ and Γ₂ are two structurally deterministic labeled marked graphs, then (L)(Γ₁)=L(Γ₂)&rlhar2;π(Γ ₁)=π(Γ₂)     

POC net,a subclass of Petri nets,and its application to timed Petri nets

Liveness is one of the most important properties of the Petri net analysis. This property is concerned with a capability for firing of transitions. On the other hand, place-liveness is another notion related to liveness, which is concerned with a capability for having tokens in places. Concerning these liveness and place-liveness problems, this paper suggests a new subclass of Petri net, ‘POC nets’, as a superclass of AC nets and DC nets. For this subclass, the equivalence between liveness and place-liveness is shown and a sufficient condition for liveness for this POC net is derived. Then the results are extended to liveness problem of timed Petri nets which have transitions with finite firing durations and the earliest firing rule. Although liveness of a (non-timed) Petri net is neither necessary nor sufficient condition for liveness of a timed Petri net, it is shown that liveness is preserved if the net has POC structure. Furthermore, it is pointed out that if a POC net satisfies some additional condition, Petri net liveness is equivalent to timed Petri net liveness. Finally, it is shown that liveness of timed POC nets with TC structure and the earliest firing rule is decidable with deterministic polynomial time complexity.     

On expressive power of regular realizability problems

A regular realizability (RR) problem is a problem of testing nonemptiness of intersection of some fixed language (filter) with a regular language. We show that RR problems are universal in the following sense. For any language L there exists an RR problem equivalent to L under disjunctive reductions in nondeterministic log space. From this result, we derive existence of complete problems under polynomial reductions for many complexity classes, including all classes of the polynomial hierarchy.     

The synthesis problem of Petri nets

The synthesis problem of concurrent systems is the problem of synthesizing a concurrent system model from sequential observations. The paper studies the synthesis problem for elementary Petri nets and transition systems. A characterization of the class of transition systems which correspond to elementary Petri nets is proven. It is shown how to generate all elementary Petri nets corresponding to a given transition system. If there is any such elementary Petri net, it is proven that there always exists a small one which has only polynomially many elements in the size of the transition system. Received October 5, 1992 / April 11, 1995     

On the ω-language Expressive Power of Extended Petri Nets

In this paper, we study the expressive power of several monotonic extensions of Petri nets. We compare the expressive power of Petri nets, Petri nets extended with non-blocking arcs and Petri nets extended with transfer arcs, in terms of ω-languages. We show that the hierarchy of expressive powers of those models is strict. To prove these results, we propose original techniques that rely on well-quasi orderings and monotonicity properties.     

Configuration structures, event structures and Petri nets

In this paper the correspondence between safe Petri nets and event structures, due to Nielsen, Plotkin and Winskel, is extended to arbitrary nets without self-loops, under the collective token interpretation. To this end we propose a more general form of event structure, matching the expressive power of such nets. These new event structures and nets are connected by relating both notions with configuration structures, which can be regarded as representations of either event structures or nets that capture their behaviour in terms of action occurrences and the causal relationships between them, but abstract from any auxiliary structure.A configuration structure can also be considered logically, as a class of propositional models, or—equivalently—as a propositional theory in disjunctive normal from. Converting this theory to conjunctive normal form is the key idea in the translation of such a structure into a net.For a variety of classes of event structures we characterise the associated classes of configuration structures in terms of their closure properties, as well as in terms of the axiomatisability of the associated propositional theories by formulae of simple prescribed forms, and in terms of structural properties of the associated Petri nets.     

Distributing Finite Automata Through Petri Net Synthesis

The synthesis problem for Petri nets consists in deciding constructively the existence of a Petri net with sequential state graph isomorphic to a given graph. If events are attached to locations, one may set as an additional requirement that the synthesised net should be distributable; i.e. such that events at different locations have no common input place, whence distributed conflicts are avoided. Distributable nets are easily implemented by finite families of automata (one per location) communicating with each other by asynchronous message passing. We show that the general Petri net synthesis problem and its distributed version may both be solved in time polynomial in the size of the given graph. We report on some preliminary experiments of Petri net synthesis applied to the distribution of reactive automata using the tool SYNET. Received November 2000 / Accepted in revised form August 2001     

Petri网展开图法的分析和应用

Petri网的展开图是一种特殊的并发系统状态空间搜索方法，它不需要重复考虑并发事件的所有可能的交集，从而大大缩减状态空间爆炸给验证分析带来的空间复杂度和时间复杂度。使用展开图分析Petri网的行为属性与传统的Petri网分析方法相比，具有自己的特点。该文首先介绍了Petri网展开图的构造算法，在此基础上使用展开图分析方法对一个典型Petri网的活性，有界性和可逆性等行为属性进行了分析，并与传统的Petri网分析方法作比较。