Treffer: Simulation-Based Analysis Of Distributed Information System Behaviour

Simulation-based analysis of formal models of distributed systems with respect to certain required system properties often fails due to the large number of possible execution sequences. In general, the number of possible execution sequences of some fixed length grows exponentially with the degree of concurrency. In the approach suggested in this paper models of distributed information systems are represented as highlevel Petri nets. A new kind of Petri net simulation is proposed which does not create sequences of transitions or sequences of sets of transitions but instead creates partially ordered sets of transition occurrences, so-called processes. In this paper the basic simulation concepts are described and a Prolog-based implementation is surveyed. This work is part of a larger project which aims at providing methodological support for an evolutionary and cooperative strategy for the development of distributed information systems.