A (timed) state-transition semantics for reflective petri nets

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 Petri nets) was recently proposed to support dynamic discrete-event system's design, and was applied 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. © 2008 IEEE.