Coloured Petri Nets 1 + 2 spring 2010

Announcements

Description

To cope with the complexity of modern computing systems, it is crucial to be able to debug and test the central parts of system designs prior to implementation. One way to do this is to build a prototype. Another and often faster way is to build a model. This allows the designer to inspect the model and in this way learn and reason about the behaviour of the system prior to implementation. In this way many design problems and errors can be discovered early in the system development phase.

This course will focus on Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) which is a graphical modelling language used for communication protocols and other software for distributed systems. CPN allows system designers to build models that can be executed and analysed by a computer tool. Simulation of CPN models makes it possible to conduct a detailed investigation of the system behaviour, and reason about performance properties (such as delays and throughput). State space analysis makes it possible to verify functional properties of the system (such as absence of deadlocks).

The first quarter of the course will introduce the participants to the CPN modelling language, its analysis methods, and supporting computer tools. This will include presentation of industrial projects where CPN has been used for the modelling and analysis of systems. The second quarter of the course is optional and consists in conducting a larger modelling and analysis project. There is a large degree of freedom in defining the project which is to be conducted in groups of 2-4 persons.

A further description of aims and content of the course can be found via the official course description CPN1 and CPN2.

Literature

Coloured Petri Nets 1 will be based on the book:

K. Jensen and L.M. Kristensen: Coloured Petri Nets - Modelling and Validation of Concurrent Systems. (www.cs.au.dk/CPnets/cpnbook/)

The book can be purchased in the book shop at the Department of Mathematical Sciences. The first two chapters can be down-loaded from the CPN Book web-pages above.

Lectures

Evaluation

There will be individual oral examinations at the end of Coloured Petri Nets 1 and Coloured Petri Net 2 with grades according to the 7-scale. The exam will last for 20 minutes per candidate with no advance preparation time. Further information about the exam.