Petri Nets for Systems Engineering [Hardcover]

Claude Girault (Author), Rüdiger Valk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 16, 2002 | ISBN-10: 3540412174 | ISBN-13: 978-3540412175 | Edition: 1

Using formal methods for the specification and verification of hardware and software systems is becoming increasingly important as systems increase in size and complexity. The aim of the book is to illustrate progress in formal methods based on Petri net formalisms. It presents both practical and theoretical foundations for the use of Petri nets in complex system engineering tasks. In doing so it bridges the gap between Petri nets and the systems modeling and implementation process. It contains a collection of examples arising from different fields, such as flexible manufacturing, telecommunication and workflow management systems.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews: "This is an extensive work providing an overview of the current state of the art of the use of Petri nets in systems engineering. … The book has been carefully written avoiding an excess of formulas and technicalities. … This book is suited for those well acquainted with formal modelling of systems and who now want to learn which techniques are available from the perspective of Petri nets." (J.F. Groote, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1024, 2003)

From the Back Cover

Formal methods for the specification and verification of hardware and software systems are becoming more and more important as systems increase in size and complexity. The aim of the book is to illustrate progress in formal methods, based on Petri net formalisms. It contains a collection of examples arising from different fields, such as flexible manufacturing, telecommunication and workflow management systems. The book covers the main phases of the life cycle of design and implementation of a system, i.e., specification, model checking techniques for verification, analysis of properties, code generation, and execution of models. These techniques and their tool support are discussed in detail including practical issues. Amongst others, fundamental concepts such as composition, abstraction, and reusability of models, model verification, and verification of properties are systematically introduced.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 607 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (December 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3540412174
• ISBN-13: 978-3540412175
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,456,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good general overview of the field, but quite uneven, August 23, 2007

By 

Andrei Formiga (Joao Pessoa, Brasil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Petri Nets for Systems Engineering (Hardcover)

This book goes for breadth, in a very ambitious take on Petri nets: to cover the complete range of activities of systems engineering supported by nets, from modelling to verification to validation and execution, including case studies in application domains. All this in a complete, self-contained volume. And it mostly succeeds in giving a general view of the possible uses of Petri nets and the research areas related to these nets. So it may be useful to both practicioners and researchers.

The chapters are divided into parts, according to the many aspects investigated: Part I is on basic concepts of Petri nets, including its features, models, definitions and properties. Part II takes on modelling systems with Petri nets. Individual techniques and complete methods (e.g. state-based modelling and event-based modelling) are presented, and case studies analysed. Then, Part III includes four chapters about verification of Petri net models, presenting an array of different techniques and approaches: state-space-based model checking, structural methods, deductive logic-based methods and techniques based on process algebras. Finally, Part IV is about validation and execution of nets, including code generation from net models, and Part V showcases three application domains for the nets: manufacturing systems, workflow systems and telecommunications.

To cover all this ground in the subject of Petri nets, the book was written collectively by more than 20 authors; even some of the chapters are divided into sections written by different people. This naturally results in noticeable variations of style and quality between chapters, and even between sections in the same chapter. Although some effort was spent to try to integrate them better, some sections (and chapters) are quite convoluted and hard to understand, while others are very clear and informative. The notation and style of presentation also changes, but this is mostly not a problem, because chapters often tackle different problems. Also, most of the sections that are difficult to grasp include references that can be used to learn more about the subject. Some sections are really very superficial, covering only the major ideas involved in some technique or method, and sweeping most of the meaty details under the rug, to the references. Unfortunately, some sections don't include enough references to track the original work from which they're based.

Finally, a warning regarding the title: it seems mostly directed to practicioners, but actually includes a lot of material that can be classified as recent research, and so not thoroughly in the field. This is very valuable to a researcher on Petri nets, who can get in contact with a lot of the research on nets done elsewhere, but may be not directly useful to practicioners. Even so, users of Petri nets that are not very interested in research results may take from the book a general idea of tools and possibilities that can be used with net models in all the stages of systems design and execution.

For all readers, I believe this book is mostly useful as a collection of pointers to further research or experimentation.