Using predicate temporal logic and coloured Petri nets to specifying integrity restrictions in the structural evolution of temporal active systems

Abstract

There are many approaches to specify and design software systems, but their evolution is not usually dealt with. Our proposal is to use two formalisms to manage evolution: a language based on past predicate temporal logic (PPTL) and coloured Petri nets (CPN). Both formalisms allow the structure and behaviour of a system to be specified in the same way and to decide when a system can run or when it can evolve depending on its functioning and structure in the past. A correspondence relationship is established between both formalisms, which allows CPN to be used to reason about the integrity of the systems which evolve.