Self-modifiable color Petri nets for modeling user manipulation and network event handling

Abstract

A Self-Modifiable Color Petri Net (SMCPN) which has multimedia synchronization capability and the ability to model user manipulation and network event (i.e., network congestion, etc.) handling is proposed in this paper. In SMCPN, there are two types of tokens: resource tokens representing resources to be presented and color tokens with two subtypes: one associated with some commands to modify the net mechanism in operation, another associated with a number to decide iteration times. Also introduced is a new type of resource token, named reverse token, that moves in the opposite direction of arcs. When user manipulation/network event occurs, color tokens associated with the corresponding interrupt handling commands will be injected into places that contain resource tokens. These commands are then executed to handle the user manipulation/network event. SMCPN has the desired general programmability in the following sense: 1) It allows handling of user manipulations or prespecified events at any time while keeping the Petri net design simple and easy. 2) It allows the user to customize event handling beforehand. This means the system being modeled can handle not only commonly seen user interrupts (e.g., skip, reverse, freeze), the user is free to define new operations, including network event handling. 3) It has the power to simulate self-modifying protocols. A simulator has been built to demonstrate the feasibility of SMCPN.