Distributed simulation of modular time Petri nets: an approach and a case study exploiting temporal uncertainty

This paper proposes an approach to modular modelling and simulation of complex time-critical systems. The modelling language is represented by Merlin and Farber's Time Petri Nets (TPNs) augmented with inhibitor arcs and modular constructs borrowed from the Petri Net Markup Language (PNML) interchange format. Analysis techniques depend on Temporal Uncertainty Time Warp (TUTW), a time warp algorithm capable of exploiting temporal uncertainty in general optimistic simulations over a networked context. A key feature of the approach is the fact that TPN models naturally exhibit a certain degree of temporal uncertainty which the TUTW control engine can exploit to achieve good speedup without a loss in the accuracy of the simulation results. The developed TUTW/TPN kernel is demonstrated by modelling and simulation of a real-time system example.