Translating UML State Machines to Coloured Petri Nets Using Acceleo: A Report

UML state machines are widely used to specify dynamic systems behaviours. However its semantics is described informally, thus preventing the application of model checking techniques that could guarantee the system safety. In a former work, we proposed a formalisation of non-concurrent UML state machines using coloured Petri nets, so as to allow for formal verification. In this paper, we report our experience to implement this translation in an automated manner using the model-to-text transformation tool Acceleo. Whereas Acceleo provides interesting features that facilitated our translation process, it also suffers from limitations uneasy to overcome.Comment: In Proceedings ESSS 2014, arXiv:1405.055

Colored Petri nets in the simulation of ETL standard tasks: the surrogate key pipelining case

ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) systems are formed by processes responsible for the extraction of data from several sources, cleaning and transforming it in accordance with some prerequisites of a data warehouse, and finally loading it in its multidimensional structures. ETL processes are the most complex tasks involved within the development of a Data Warehousing System, being crucial to model them previously so that, during the implementation stage, the correct set of requirements is considered. Coloured Petri Nets are a graphical modelling language used in the design, specification, simulation and validation of large systems, characterized as being strongly concurrent. The objective of this manuscript is to discuss the application of Coloured Petri Nets to the specification and validation of ETL systems. To demonstrate their viability for such tasks we have selected one of the most relevant and used case in ETL systems implementation: a surrogate key pipelining

Validation of reactive software from scenario-based models

This thesis proposal suggests a model-based approach to obtain, from a set of behavioural scenarios of a given reactive software system, a graphical animation for reproducing that set of scenarios for validation purposes. The approach assumes that the requirements of the system are described by a use case diagram, being the behaviour of each use case detailed by a collection of scenario descriptions. These use cases and scenarios are transformed into a Coloured Petri Net (CPN) model, which is next complemented with animation-specific elements. By executing the CPN model, it is possible to animate the scenarios in a user-friendly way and thus ensuring an effective involvement of the users in the system’s validation. The CPN model is enforced to be (1) parametric, allowing an easy modification of the initial conditions of the scenarios, (2) environment-descriptive, meaning that it includes the state of the relevant elements of the environment, and (3) animation-separated, implying that the elements related to animation are clearly separated from the other ones. We validate our approach based on its application to two examples of reactive systems

The Impact of Petri Nets on System-of-Systems Engineering

The successful engineering of a large-scale system-of-systems project towards deterministic behaviour depends on integrating autonomous components using international communications standards in accordance with dynamic requirements. To-date, their engineering has been unsuccessful: no combination of top-down and bottom-up engineering perspectives is adopted, and information exchange protocol and interfaces between components are not being precisely specified. Various approaches such as modelling, and architecture frameworks make positive contributions to system-of-systems specification but their successful implementation is still a problem. One of the most popular modelling notations available for specifying systems, UML, is intuitive and graphical but also ambiguous and imprecise. Supplying a range of diagrams to represent a system under development, UML lacks simulation and exhaustive verification capability. This shortfall in UML has received little attention in the context of system-of-systems and there are two major research issues: 1. Where the dynamic, behavioural diagrams of UML can and cannot be used to model and analyse system-of-systems 2. Determining how Petri nets can be used to improve the specification and analysis of the dynamic model of a system-of-systems specified using UML This thesis presents the strengths and weaknesses of Petri nets in relation to the specification of system-of-systems and shows how Petri net models can be used instead of conventional UML Activity Diagrams. The model of the system-of-systems can then be analysed and verified using Petri net theory. The Petri net formalism of behaviour is demonstrated using two case studies from the military domain. The first case study uses Petri nets to specify and analyse a close air support mission. This case study concludes by indicating the strengths, weaknesses, and shortfalls of the proposed formalism in system-of-systems specification. The second case study considers specification of a military exchange network parameters problem and the results are compared with the strengths and weaknesses identified in the first case study. Finally, the results of the research are formulated in the form of a Petri net enhancement to UML (mapping existing activity diagram elements to Petri net elements) to meet the needs of system-of-systems specification, verification and validation

Modeling and Validation of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol with Colored Petri Nets

Petri Networks with a graphical language are based on mathematical logic which have many uses and have capability for modeling and validation of distributed systems and concurrent applications. Colored Petri Networks (CPNs) are a type of Petri Network models that are used in modeling of systems which contain discrete and scattered events. In general, CPNs are used to evaluate system performance and demonstrate the correctness of systems. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is one of the main systems of protocols special for servers that are used for dynamic allocation of IP to the network computers (clients). In this paper, we highlight to analyze the correctness and authenticity of DHCPs with the use of CPNs with using the CPN Tools and to prove the accuracy of our protocol's performance.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v2i3.48

Colored Petri Net: Its application to Sucrose Biosynthesis Pathway in Plasmodium falciparum

Sucrose plays major role as macromolecule used in organisms including Plasmodium falciparum (P.f.) to generate glucose for energy production in the glycolysis pathway. A metabolic pathway is a series of chemical reactions, which goes through various intermediate compounds to transform input compounds into a product. In this work, we modelled a metabolic pathway in Plasmodium falciparum using Colored Petri Net Markup Language (CPNML). The model was used to examine the dynamic behavior of the sucrose biosynthesis pathway which shows the interactions between the metabolites and the reactions in the sucrose biosynthesis pathway of Plasmodium falciparum. We further analyzed the model for its structural and quantitative properties using Petri Net theory. Our model gives more insight to the structure of the pathway and helps to improve our understanding of the biological processes within this pathway.Keywords: Sucrose, Colored Petri Net, Plasmodium falciparu

Validation of scenario-based business requirements with Coloured Petri Nets

A scenario can be used to describe a possible instantiation of a given business use case and can be expressed for example as a list of steps written in natural language, or by an interaction diagram. This paper discusses how a collection of scenarios, all expressed as UML2 sequence diagrams, can be described for validation purposes by a single model, written in the Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) modelling language. Due to the support for parallelism given by the CPN language, the obtained CPN model can: (1) simultaneously execute several scenarios; and (2) elegantly represent the parallel activities inside a scenario. This two-level parallelism is crucial during validation, since it allows one to detect problems that are only evident when several scenarios are in simultaneous execution and may affect each other. We exemplify our approach in a system that has a rich set of interactions with its users.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - bolsa SFRH/BD/19718/2004, programa PTDC/EIA/70271/2006 “AMADEUS: Aspects and Compiler Optimizations for Matlab System Development

Formal requirements modeling with executable use cases and Coloured Petri Nets

This paper presents executable use cases (EUCs), which constitute a model-based approach to requirements engineering. EUCs may be used as a supplement to model-driven development (MDD) and can describe and link user-level requirements and more technical software specifications. In MDD, user-level requirements are not always explicitly described, since usually it is sufficient that one provides a specification, or platform-independent model, of the software that is to be developed. Therefore, a combination of EUCs and MDD may have potential to cover the path from user-level requirements via specifications to implementations of computer-based systems

Coloured Petri Nets - a Pragmatic Formal Method for Designing and Analysing Distributed Systems

The thesis consists of six individual papers, where the present paper contains the mandatory overview, while the remaining five papers are found separately from the overview. The five papers can roughly be divided into three areas of research, namely case studies, education, and extensions to the CPN method.The primary purpose of the PhD thesis is to study the pragmatics, practical aspects, and intuition of CP-nets viewed as a formal method for describing and reasoning about concurrent systems. The perspective of pragmatics is our leitmotif, but at the same time in the context of CP-nets it is a kind of hypothesis of this thesis. This overview paper summarises the research conducted as an investigation of the hypothesis in the three areas of case studies, education, and extensions.The provoking claim of pragmatics should not be underestimated. In the present overview of the thesis, the CPN method is compared with a representative selection of formal methods. The graphics and simplicity of semantics, yet generality and expressiveness of the language constructs, essentially makes CP-nets a viable and attractive alternative to other formal methods. Similar graphical formal methods, such as SDL and Statecharts, typically have significantly more complicated semantics, or are domain-specific languages.research conducted in this thesis, opens a new complex of problems. Firstly, to get wider acceptance of CP-nets in industry, it is important to identify fruitful areas for the effective introduction of the CPN method. Secondly, it would be useful to identify a few extensions to the CPN method inspired by specific domains for easier adaption in industry. Thirdly, which analysis methods do future systems make use of