Applying a Symbolic Approach for SWN Enabling Test to Workflow Models

Abstract

Colored Petri nets are a formalism widely used to specify and analyze workflow models. Finding the set of transition color instances enabled in a given marking is a basic task affecting reachability graph construction, model-checking, and especially discrete-event simulation, which is an interesting alternative when analytical solutions are unfeasible due to state-space explosion. An introduced symbolic approach to colored transition enabling test is the kernel for the efficient implementation of several algorithms for the analysis of SWN (a stochastic CPN flavor retaining power that exploits behavioral symmetries) based on state-space exploration. An application example of the symbolic enabling test for efficient simulation of SWN workflow models is presented. The example shows that the technique can be easily integrated to the SWN symbolic firing rule