Performance Analysis using Coloured Petri Nets

Abstract

Performance is often a central issue in the design, development, and configuration of systems. It is not always enough to know that systems work properly, they must also work effectively. There are numerous studies, e.g. in the areas of computer and telecommunication systems, manufacturing, military, health care, and transportation, that have shown that time, money, and even lives can be saved if the performance of a system is improved. Performance analysis studies are conducted to evaluate existing or planned systems, to compare alternative configurations, or to find an optimal configuration of a system. There are three alternative techniques for analysing the performance of a system: measurement, analytical models, and simulation models.This dissertation focuses on the the use of coloured Petri nets for simulationbased performance analysis of industrial-sized systems. Coloured Petri nets are particularly well suited for modelling and analysing large and complex systems for several reasons: they have an intuitive graphical representation; they are executable; hierarchical models can be constructed; it is possible to model the time used by different activities in a system; and mature and well-tested tools exist for creating, simulating, and analysing coloured Petri net models.The dissertation consists of two parts. Part II is composed of four individual papers and constitutes the core of the dissertation. All four papers have been published or accepted for publication as workshop papers. Part I is the obligatory overview paper with summarises the work that has been done. The overview paper introduces the research field of performance analysis using coloured Petri nets, and it summarises the contents and contributions of the four individual papers.The first paper presents an overview of improved facilities for performance analysis using coloured Petri nets. Personal experience has shown that people with different backgrounds have very different needs with regards to tools supporting simulation-based performance analysis. Inexperienced data analysts will have a tendency to believe what a tool tells them, therefore care must be taken to avoid generating misleading results. More experienced data analysts generally require that more sophisticated kinds of data are generated for specific purposes. The paper presents new performance-related facilities such as support for running multiple simulations, calculating confidence intervals, generating organised and systematic simulation output, simulating and comparing alternative system configurations, and variance reduction techniques.The second paper presents a framework for implementing monitoring facilities that observe, inspect, and control simulations of coloured Petri nets. During v the past decade, a number of libraries and tool extensions have been developed for tools supporting coloured Petri nets, including support for data collection, message sequence charts, updating domain-specific graphics, and communication between simulators and other processes. Whil...

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“…sequence, concurrent and exclusion which are denoted by circled arrows, pluses and crosses respectively. In Figure 1 [8] focuses on the use of colored Petri nets for simulation based performance analysis of industrial sized systems. He has presented an overview of improved facilities for performance analysis using colored Petri nets and a framework for implementing monitoring facilities that observe, inspect, and control simulations of Colored Petri nets (CPNs).…”

Energy consumption and execution time estimation of embedded system applications

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