Token-Controlled Place Refinement in Hierarchical Petri Nets with Application to Active Document Workflow

  • Authors:
  • David G. Stork;Rob J. van Glabbeek

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-

  • Venue:
  • ICATPN '02 Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Applications and Theory of Petri Nets
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

We propose extensions to predicate/transition nets to allow tokens to carry both data and control information, where such control can refine special "refinable place nodes" in the net. These formal extensions find use in active document workflow, in which documents themselves specify portions of the overall processing within a workflow net. Our approach enables the workflow designer to specify which places of the target predicate/transition net may be refined and it enables the document author to specify how these places will be refined (via attachment of a token-generated "refinement net"). This apportionment of the overall task allows the workflow designer to set general constraints within which the document author can control the processing; it prevents conflicts between them in foreseeable practical cases. Refinable places are augmented with a permission structure specifying which document authors can refine that place and which document tokens can execute a node's refinement net. Our refined nets have a hierarchical structure which can be represented by bipartite trees.