Petri nets offer a mathematically defined technique for the specification, design, analysis, verification and performance evaluation of concurrent distributed systems. Communications networks, ranging from traditional telecommunication systems to advanced Internet-based information services, are inherently distributed and comprise systems with concurrently operating components. This volume presents a selection of the latest advances in the use of Petri nets for the modeling, analysis and management of communication networks and systems in the broadest sense of these terms.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Applications and Theory of Petri Nets and Other Models of Concurrency, PETRI NETS 2008, held in Xi'an, China, in June 2008. The 19 revised full regular papers and 4 revised tool papers presented together with 5 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 75 submissions. All current issues on research and development in the area of Petri nets and modeling of concurrent systems are addressed.

The world is full of events which cause, end or affect other events. The study of these events, from a system point of view, is very important. Such systems are called discrete event dynamic systems and are of a subject of immense interest in a variety of disciplines, which range from telecommunication systems and transport systems to manufacturing systems and beyond. There has always been an intense need to formulate methods for modelling and analysis of discrete event dynamic systems. Petri net is a method which is based on a well-founded mathematical theory and has a wide application. This book is a collection of recent advances in theoretical and practical applications of the Petri net method and can be useful for both academia and industry related practitioners.

Over the past two decades, research in the theory of Petri nets and the development of graphical tools has yielded a powerful methodology. The contributions in Petri Nets in Flexible and Agile Automation present theoretical development of Petri nets as well as in industrial applications to areas such as discrete- event control design, scheduling, performance evaluation and deadlock avoidance. These contributions also include comparative studies of Petri nets and other approaches. A primary theme of this book is to provide a unified approach to the applications of Petri nets in flexible and agile automation and, in that regard, a common notation and terminology is used. The book also allows readers to evaluate the benefits and applicability of state-of-the-art Petri net methods and apply CAD tools to problems of interest. Petri Nets in Flexible and Agile Automation is not only an essential reference for researchers, it is also a very useful tool for engineers, analysts and managers who are responsible for the design, implementation and operation of the next generation of manufacturing systems.

Driven by the request for increased productivity, flexibility, and competitiveness, modern civilization increasingly has created high-performance discrete event dynamic systems (DEDSs). These systems exhibit concurrent, sequential, competitive activities among their components. They are often complex and large in scale, and necessarily flexible and thus highly capital-intensive. Examples of systems are manufacturing systems, communication networks, traffic and logistic systems, and military command and control systems. Modeling and performance evaluation play a vital role in the design and operation of such high-performance DEDSs and thus have received widespread attention from researchers over the past two decades. One methodology resulting from this effort is based on timed Petri nets and related graphical and mathematical tools. The popularity that Petri nets have been gaining in modeling of DEDSs is due to their powerful representational ability of concurrency and synchronization; however these properties of DEDSs cannot be expressed easily in traditional formalisms developed for analysis of `classical' systems with sequential behaviors. This book introduces the theories and applications of timed Petri nets systematically. Moreover, it also presents many practical applications in addition to theoretical developments, together with the latest research results and industrial applications of timed Petri nets. Timed Petri Nets: Theory and Application is intended for use by researchers and practitioners in the area of Discrete Event Dynamic Systems.

High-level Petri nets are now widely used in both theoretical analysis and practical modelling of concurrent systems. The main reason for the success of this class of net models is that they make it possible to obtain much more succinct and manageable de scriptions than can be obtained by means of low-level Petri nets-while, on the other hand, they still offer a wide range of analysis methods and tools. The step from low-level nets to high-level nets can be compared to the step from assembly languages to modem programming languages with an elaborated type concept. In low-level nets there is only one kind of token and this means that the state of a place is described by an integer (and in many cases even by a boolean value). In high-level nets each token can carry complex information which, e. g. , may describe the entire state of a process or a data base. Today most practical applications of Petri nets use one of the different kinds of high-level nets. A considerable body of knowledge exists about high-level Petri nets this includes theoretical foundations, analysis methods and many applications. Unfortunately, the papers on high-level Petri nets have been scattered throughout various journals and collections. As a result, much of this knowledge is not readily available to people who may be interested in using high-level nets.

One critical barrier leading to successful implementation of flexible manufacturing and related automated systems is the ever-increasing complexity of their modeling, analysis, simulation, and control. Research and development over the last three decades has provided new theory and graphical tools based on Petri nets and related concepts for the design of such systems. The purpose of this book is to introduce a set of Petri-net-based tools and methods to address a variety of problems associated with the design and implementation of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs), with several implementation examples.There are three ways this book will directly benefit readers. First, the book will allow engineers and managers who are responsible for the design and implementation of modern manufacturing systems to evaluate Petri nets for applications in their work. Second, it will provide sufficient breadth and depth to allow development of Petri-net-based industrial applications. Third, it will allow the basic Petri net material to be taught to industrial practitioners, students, and academic researchers much more efficiently. This will foster further research and applications of Petri nets in aiding the successful implementation of advanced manufacturing systems.

The refereed proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Applications and Theory of Petri Nets, ICATPN 2003, held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in June 2003. The 25 revised full papers presented together with 6 invited contributions were carefully reviewed and selected from 77 submissions. All current issues on research and development in the area of Petri nets are addressed, in particular concurrent systems design and analysis, model checking, networking, business process modeling, formal methods in software engineering, agent systems, systems specification, systems validation, discrete event systems, protocols, and prototyping.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Application and Theory of Petri Nets and Concurrency, PETRI NETS 2015, held in Brussels, Belgium, in June 2015. The 12 regular papers and 2 tool papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 34 submissions. In addition the book contains 3 invited talks in full paper length. The papers cover various topics in the field of Petri nets and related models of concurrency.