Lars Michael Kristensen

Coloured Petri Nets and CPN Tools for modelling and validation of concurrent systems

Coloured Petri Nets (CPNs) is a language for the modelling and validation of systems in which concurrency, communication, and synchronisation play a major role. Coloured Petri Nets is a discrete-event modelling language combining Petri nets with the functional programming language Standard ML. Petri nets provide the foundation of the graphical notation and the basic primitives for modelling concurrency, communication, and synchronisation. Standard ML provides the primitives for the definition of data types, describing data manipulation, and for creating compact and parameterisable models. A CPN model of a system is an executable model representing the states of the system and the events (transitions) that can cause the system to change state. The CPN language makes it possible to organise a model as a set of modules, and it includes a time concept for representing the time taken to execute events in the modelled system. CPN Tools is an industrial-strength computer tool for constructing and analysing CPN models. Using CPN Tools, it is possible to investigate the behaviour of the modelled system using simulation, to verify properties by means of state space methods and model checking, and to conduct simulation-based performance analysis. User interaction with CPN Tools is based on direct manipulation of the graphical representation of the CPN model using interaction techniques, such as tool palettes and marking menus. A license for CPN Tools can be obtained free of charge, also for commercial use.

The practitioner’s guide to coloured Petri nets

Coloured Petri nets (CP-nets or CPNs) provide a framework for the design, specification, validation, and verification of systems. CP-nets have a wide range of application areas and many CPN projects have been carried out in industry, e.g., in the areas of communication protocols, operating systems, hardware designs, embedded systems, software system designs, and business process re-engineering. Design/CPN is a graphical computer tool supporting the practical use of CP-nets. The tool supports the construction, simulation, and functional and performance analysis of CPN models. The tool is used by more than four hundred organisations in forty different countries – including one hundred commercial companies. It is available free of charge, also for commercial use. This paper provides a comprehensive road map to the practical use of CP-nets and the Design/CPN tool. We give an informal introduction to the basic concepts and ideas underlying CP-nets. The key components and facilities of the Design/CPN tool are presented and their use illustrated. The paper is self-contained and does not assume any prior knowledge of Petri nets and CP-nets nor any experience with the Design/CPN tool.

An Industrial Perspective on Wireless Sensor Networks — A Survey of Requirements, Protocols, and Challenges

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are applicable in numerous domains, including industrial automation where WSNs may be used for monitoring and control of industrial plants and equipment. However, the requirements in the industrial systems differ from the general WSN requirements. In recent years, standards have been defined by several industrial alliances. These standards are specified as frameworks with modifiable parts that can be defined based on the particular application of WSN. However, limited work has been done on defining industry-specific protocols that could be used as a part of these standards. In this survey, we discuss representative protocols that meet some of the requirements of the industrial applications. Since the industrial applications domain in itself is a vast area, we divide them into classes with similar requirements. We discuss these industrial classes, set of common requirements and various state-of-the-art WSN standards proposed to satisfy these requirements. We then present a broader view towards the WSN solution by discussing important functions like medium access control, routing, and transport in detail to give some insight into specific requirements and the classification of protocols based on certain factors. We list and discuss representative protocols for each of these functions that address requirements defined in the industrial classes. Security function is discussed in brief, mainly in relation to industrial standards. Finally, we identify unsolved challenges that are encountered during design of protocols and standards. In addition some new challenges are introduced and discussed.

A Sweep-Line Method for State Space Exploration

We present a state space exploration method for on-the-fly verification. The method is aimed at systems for which it is possible to define a measure of progress based on the states of the system. The measure of progress makes it possible to delete certain states on-the-fly during state space generation, since these states can never be reached again. This in turn reduces the memory used for state space storage during the task of verification. Examples of progress measures are sequence numbers in communication protocols and time in certain models with time. We illustrate the application of the method on a number of Coloured Petri Net models, and give a first evaluation of its practicality by means of an implementation based on the DESIGN/CPN state space tool. Our experiments show significant reductions in both space and time used during state space exploration. The method is not specific to Coloured Petri Nets but applicable to a wide range of modelling languages.

Application of Coloured Petri Nets in System Development

Coloured Petri Nets (CP-nets or CPNs) and their supporting computer tools have been used in a wide range of application areas such as communication protocols, software designs, and embedded systems. The practical application of CP-nets has also covered many phases of system development ranging from requirements to design, validation, and implementation. This paper presents four case studies where CP-nets and their supporting computer tools have been used in system development projects with industrial partners. The case studies have been selected such that they illustrate different application areas of CP-nets in various phases of system development.

Specification and Validation of an Edge Router Discovery Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

We present an industrial project at Ericsson Telebit A/S where Coloured Petri Nets (CP-nets or CPNs) have been used for the design and specification of an edge router discovery protocol for mobile ad-hoc networks. The Edge Router Discovery Protocol (ERDP) supports an edge router in a stationary core network in assigning network address prefixes to gateways in mobile ad-hoc networks. This paper focuses on how CP-nets and the CPN computer tools have been applied in the development of ERDP. A CPN model has been constructed that constitutes a formal executable specification of ERDP. Simulation and message sequence charts were used for initial investigations of the protocol’s behaviour. Then state space analysis was applied to conduct a formal verification of the key properties of ERDP. Both the modelling, simulation, and subsequent state space analysis helped in identifying several omissions and errors in the design, demonstrating the benefits of using formal modelling and analysis in a protocol design process.

A Generalised Sweep-Line Method for Safety Properties

The recently developed sweep-line method exploits progress present in many concurrent systems to explore the full state space of the system while storing only small fragments of the state space in memory at a time. A disadvantage of the sweep-line method is that it relies on a monotone and global notion of progress. This prevents the method from being used for many reactive systems. In this paper we generalise the sweep-line method such that it can be used for verifying safety properties of reactive systems exhibiting local progress. The basic idea is to relax the monotone notion of progress and to recognise the situations where this could cause the state space exploration not to terminate. The generalised sweep-line method explores all reachable states of the system, but may explore a state several times. We demonstrate the practical application of the generalised sweep-line method on two case studies demonstrating a reduction in peak memory usage to typically 10 % compared to the use of ordinary full state spaces.

Simulation based performance analysis of web servers

This paper presents a general framework for modeling distributed computing environments for performance analysis by means of Timed Hierarchical Coloured Petri Nets. The proposed framework was used to build and analyze a Coloured Petri Net model of a HTTP web server. Analysis of the performance of the web server model reveals how the web server will respond to changes in the arrival rate of requests, and alternative configurations of the web server model are examined. These are the results of a research project conducted in cooperation between the CPN Centre and Hewlett-Packard Corporation on capacity planning and performance analysis of distributed computing environments.

Specification and performance evaluation of two zone dissemination protocols for vehicular ad-hoc networks

Vehicular ad-hoc networks is an emerging research area focussing on communication infrastructures that support vehicles and road-signs in distributing road-state data such as information about hazardous road conditions ahead, approaching emergency vehicles, and traffic delays. Vehicular ad-hoc networks combine the areas of sensor networks (data acquisition) with mobile ad-hoc networks (highly dynamic topology and lack of pre-existing infrastructure). One of the main challenges of vehicular ad-hoc networks is the data dissemination protocols capable of distributing road-state information among vehicles. This paper presents two candidates for dissemination protocols: a zone flooding protocol and a zone diffusion protocol. The two protocols combine ideas from sensor networks and geocasting to ensure that data is aggregated and distributed only in a bounded geographical area. We present a comparative simulation study of the two protocols evaluating their relative performance using conventional metrics (such as network load) as well as application-specific metrics (such as awareness). The simulation study has been conducted using the network simulator 2 (NS-2) and has highlighted key properties of the two protocols that can be used as a basis for selecting the most appropriate protocol.

Condensed State Spaces for Timed Petri Nets

We present a state space method for Petri nets having a time concept based on a global clock and associating time stamps to tokens. The method is based on equivalence on states and makes it possible to condense the usually infinite state space of such timed Petri nets into a finite state space without loosing analysis power. The practical application of the method is demonstrated on a large example of an audio/video protocol by means of a computer tool implementing the method.