Extending IOPT nets with a module construct

Abstract

Input-output place-transition nets (IOPT nets) is a Petri net based formalism targeted for the development of embedded systems controllers. It is an extension to common place-transition Petri nets, introducing constructs to model the communication between the controller and the environment and using an execution semantics assuring a deterministic behavior. However, IOPT nets and the supporting tools framework - the IOPT-Tools - do not have a mechanism to support model structuring. Since models are flat, all the graphical components and annotations are visualized in the same page. Systems with several dozens of nodes become very difficult to manage. In this paper a modular construct for IOPT nets is presented, helping to manage large-scale systems, and the reuse of model components across projects. The algebraic specification of the model is provided and an example illustrating the concept is presented.