Can skeletons really be used to detect deadlocks of nets?

Abstract

Vautherin's results relating the behaviour of classes of coloured (high-level) Petri nets to ordinary Petri nets (skeletons for the classes) are examined, and their usefulness and ease of application are investigated. The feasibility of using skeletons for the purpose of 'first estimate' verifications of nets (in particular, for the early detection of deadlocks, i.e. reachable dead markings) is considered. It is found that because the relationship established by Vautherin between the dead markings of a coloured net and those of the corresponding skeleton does not differentiate between reachable and unreachable markings, deadlock-freeness of a coloured net and deadlock-freeness of its skeletons are essentially independent properties.<>