Petri Net Analysis

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Petri net analysis (PNA) is an analysis technique for identifying hazards dealing with
timing, state transitions, sequencing, and repair. PNA consists of drawing graphical
Petri net (PN) diagrams and analyzing these diagrams to locate and understand
design problems

Models of system performance, dependability, and reliability can be developed
using PN models. PNA is very useful for analyzing properties such as reachability,
recoverability, deadlock, and fault tolerance. The biggest advantage of Petri nets,
however, is that they can link hardware, software, and human elements in the
system

The PNA technique may be used to evaluate safety critical behavior of control
system software. In this situation the system design and its control software is
expressed as a timed PN. A subset of the PN states are designated as possible unsafe
states. The PN is augmented with the conditions under which those states are unsafe.
A PN reachability graph will then determine if those states can be reached during the
software execution