2 STOCHASTIC PETRI NETS
WITH PRIORITIES
We propose a class of stochastic Petri nets with prior-
ities SPN
e
. These nets combine properties of GSPN-
nets proposed in (M.A. Marsan, 1985) and Interval
Timed Petri nets (van der Aalst, 1993). SPN
e
-nets are
based on Petri nets with priorities, so begin with these
formalism.
2.1 Petri Nets with Priorities
Definition 2.1 (Petri nets with priorities) Petri net
with priorities (PN
pr
-net) is a tuple (P,T,R, Pr),
where (P,T, R) – Petri net; Pr ∈ T → N ∪{0} – prior-
ity function, that assign for each transition t natural
number Pr(t), priority of the transition.
The definition of marking is the same as for ordi-
nary Petri nets but firing rule differs. The transition
that is active in Petri net P,T,R is potentially active in
Petri net P,T,R,Pr with priorities.
Denote M
pr
() a function M
pr
() ∈ 2
T
→ 2
T
, that
for any set of transitions from T returns the subset of
transitions with maximal priority:
∀J ⊆ T M
pr
(J) = {t ∈ J|
∃t
0
∈ J : Pr(t
0
) > Pr(t)}.
Potentially active transition t
j
of the PN
pr
-net N =
(P,T,R, Pr) is active in marking m, if there is no an-
other potentially active transition t
i
∈ T: Pr(t
i
) >
Pr(t
j
). So, the existence of priorities restricts the
number of active transitions in comparison with the
same Petri net without priorities. Denote At(m) the
set of active transitions of the PN
pr
-net N in marking
m. From the definition of At(m) follows that two tran-
sitions t
i
and t
j
, t
i
6= t
j
are active in marking m only
if they have the same priority: Pr(t
i
) = Pr(t
j
). Active
transition may fire. Firing rule is the same as in the
ordinary Petri net.
It is well known that the expressive power of Petri
nets with priorities is greater than of the ordinary Petri
nets. So, in general, if we model workflow processes
by means ofWF-nets with priorities, soundness prop-
erty would be undecidable.
Let us consider free-choice Petri nets with priori-
ties. Remind that by constructing WF-nets with task
refinement approach using basic structures of choice,
sequential and parallel execution, a free-choice WF-
net will be obtained (van der Aalst, 2000). Relation
SC (structural conflict relation on the set of T) for
such nets is reflexive, transitive and symmetric. So,
we may conclude that it is an equivalence relation
and the set T may be divided into the disjoint subsets
SC
1
,SC
2
.. . SC
k
: SC
1
∪ SC
2
∪ . .. ∪ SC
k
= T.
Obviously, for free-choice PN
pr
-net N all transi-
tions in any subset SC
i
potentially active or not po-
tentially active at the same time. It is easy to prove
that for such nets if there exist at least two transitions
t
i
,t
j
∈ T : t
i
6= t
j
,t
i
SCt
j
,Pr(t
i
) 6= Pr(t
j
) then there exist
dead transitions that will never be active.
Obviously, for free-choice Petri net
N = (P,T, R,Pr), with priorities such that
∀t
i
,t
j
∈ T : t
i
SCt
j
⇒ Pr(t
i
) = Pr(t
j
), for any
marking m At(m) is empty or consists of subsets
SC
a1
,SC
a2
,. ..,SC
ap
with the same priority.
If we constrain the structure of the net by the free-
choice property and require certain rules on priorities
assignment, the soundness property will be decidable.
The following theorem may be proved (Gorbunov,
2006).
Theorem 2.1 If a free-choice WF-net N = (P,T,R)
is sound, the WF-net N
0
with priorities: N
0
=
(P
0
,T
0
,R
0
,Pr
0
): P
0
= P, T
0
= T,R
0
= R, ∀t
0
i
,t
0
j
∈ T
0
:
t
0
i
SCt
0
j
⇒ Pr(t
0
i
) = Pr(t
0
j
) with the same initial mark-
ing m
0
i
= m
i
is sound.
2.2 Stochastic Petri Nets
Tokens have time stamps that denotes time when to-
ken will be available for transition execution. While
executing, transitions assign time stamps to the pro-
duced tokens.
Definition 2.2 (Stochastic Petri net with priorities)
A stochastic Petri net with priorities N ∈ SPN
e
is a
tuple (P,T,R,W,Pr):
• (P,T,R, Pr) – free-choice PN
pr
net;
• W ∈ T → R
+
.
There exist two types of transitions: timed and
immediate. A transition t is a timed transition iff
Pr(t) = 0 and is an immediate transition otherwise.
Firing of immediate transitions takes no time.
Delays of timed transitions are defined by the neg-
ative exponential probability function. For timed
transitions W defines the rate of executions, i.e.
the parameter of negative exponential probabil-
ity function of the delays: ∀t ∈ T,Pr(t) = 0 :
P{delay of execution of t ≤ x} = 1− e
−W(t)x
.
For immediate transitions W is used for resolving
conflicts between transitions.
For SPN
e
-net N = (P, T,R,W,Pr) timed state
space S ⊆ P → (R → N) is defined. For timed state
s ∈ S for any p ∈ P,s(p) is multiset on R. Timed state
defines for any place p the number of tokens and their
time stamps.
If in a timed state s we abstract from token time
stamps, we obtain marking s
m
as in ordinary Petri
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR ONE CLASS OF WORKFLOW PROCESSES - A Stochastic Petri Net Based
Approach
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