DEVS 2010 - Using Time Stream Petri Nets over a Service Architecture for Workflow Modelling and Enactment

Using Time Stream Petri Nets over a Service Architecture for Workflow Modelling and Enactment

Franco Cicirelli, Angelo Furfaro and Libero Nigro

Symposium on Theory of Modeling and Simulation (DEVS'10) (DEVS 2010)
Orlando, ON, April 11-15 2010

Summary

Timing requirements are important aspects in workflow modelling, analysis and enactment. In the last few years, though, many workflow languages and tools have been proposed but only few of them address timing issues during enactment. This paper argues that Time Stream Petri Nets (TSPNs), originally designed for multimedia/hypermedia modelling and analysis, are a well-suited formalism also for supporting the whole lifecycle of workflow processes with timing constraints. A novel approach to distributed enactment of workflow processes specified by TSPNs in the context of PNEngine is proposed. PN-Engine is a decentralized enactment engine based on the Service Oriented Computing paradigm, that enables execution of workflow processes where the coordinated activities may involve cross-boundary organizations. The approach is illustrated by means of an example concerned with a wine-production process.

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