Petri Nets (IN2052)
| Lecturer | Prof. Dr. Javier Esparza |
|---|---|
| Assistant | Valentin Krasotin |
| Duration | 4 SWS |
| Language of instruction | English |
Dates
Lectures and tutorials
- Tuesdays: 08:30-10:00, 03.09.014
- Thursdays: 14:15-15:45, 003, Hörsaal 2, "Interims II" (5416.01.003)
Tutorials do not always fall on the same day. We will try to have three lectures followed by one tutorial, but this will not always be possible. The planned schedule for the next few weeks is as follows:
- Thursday, April 24, 14:15-15:45: Lecture
- Tuesday, April 29, 08:30-10:00: Lecture
- Tuesday, May 6, 08:30-10:00: Tutorial
- Thursday, May 8, 14:15-15:45: Lecture
- Tuesday, May 13, 08:30-10:00: Lecture
- Thursday, May 15, 14:15-15:45: Tutorial
- Thursday, May 22, 14:15-15:45: Lecture
- Tuesday, May 27, 08:30-10:00: Lecture
Content
Petri nets are a formal model for concurrent systems invented in the 1960s by Carl Adam Petri. Petri nets combine a simple, clear graphical notation with a precise semantics, and a wealth of available techniques for analysis and verification. The structure of Petri nets intuitively visualizes fundamental concepts of concurrency such as causality and conflict.
Petri nets provide a formal semantics for several industry standards like UML activity diagrams (a notation for the representation of workflows), or BPNM and EPCs, two languages for the description of business processes. They are also directly used to model and analyze manufacturing systems, communication protocols, hardware designs, business processes, and biological systems. The Petri net group at Aarhus University in Denmark maintains this web page with many case studies.
The course teaches the fundamentals of the theory of Petri nets. (This is a theory course!) It introduces several variants of Petri nets, but focuses on the most popular model, place-transition Petri nets. The course introduces the main techniques for analyzing and verifying properties of Petri nets:
- Reachability and coverability graphs
- Techniques based on well-quasi-orders
- Place and transition invariants, siphons and traps
- Structure theory: S-nets, T-nets, free-choice nets
Materials
You can find the exercise sheets and lecture notes on Moodle.
Exams from previous years will appear here soon.
Exercises
Exercises are voluntary and do not account for the final grades. It is highly recommended to work on the exercises, as this is the best preparation for the exam.
Exam
The final grade is determined by a 75-minute written exam. The dates for the exam are:
- Endterm: Thursday, August 7, 14:00-15:15
- Retake: Thursday, October 9, 08:00-09:15
To prepare for the exam, you are strongly encouraged to go through the exercise sheets and take some past exams at home.