Modeling multiple interactions using coloured petri nets: A case study

Abstract

The dynamic nature of cooperative information systems (CIS) makes considerably more difficult the task of modeling interactions among agents. One of the most difficult problems related to the dynamic of a system is how to model and control simultaneously multiple interactions among agents in a friendly way. So far, traditional approaches deal with the problem of modeling interactions in static conditions and commonly with only two agents participating concurrently in cooperative tasks. Consequently, expressiveness becomes a problem related with the representation of multiple interactions in a satisfactory way, particularly in dynamic environments, such as e-business. The paper illustrates the application of a methodology based on Coloured Petri Nets (CP nets) in order to model the interaction mechanism in a CIS in an expressive way. This reduces the associated complexity in the representation of the dynamic of the system in a contact center environment, which is the start point to customer service, where concurrent interactions among users, technical people, process center and the contact center constitute a dynamic process that needs to be permanently monitored and controlled. The methodology provides us important advantages in the representation and reasoning for the interaction mechanism modeled in CIS. The use of CP nets allows analyzing the behavior of the system in the dynamic model using the individual and structural model. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.