A test suite for exposing design and implementation details in petri net simulators

Abstract

In this paper we deal with issues concerning design and implementation constraints of petri net simulators. We have discovered several interesting anomalies of specific simulators and the general inability of public domain petri net simulators to accommodate anything but the most simplistic models. Also, there are numerous design issues which have been addressed differently in different Petri Net Simulators. Hence, a user may expect behavior completely different from the one exhibited by the Simulator. In this paper, we try to address the above mentioned problem by presenting a test suite intended to evaluate the behavior of a petri net simulator. It is specifically designed to expose not only differences in the manner in which the design issues are addressed, but also limitations due to the implementation. We also present specific cases where this test suite has helped in pointing out the shortcomings of specific simulators. A logical conclusion to our work would be to bring about some level of standardization in the implementation of petri net simulators.