A general iterative technique for approximate throughput computation of stochastic strongly connected marked graphs is presented. It generalizes a previous technique based on net decomposition through a single input-single output cut, allowing the split of the model through any cut. The approach has two basic foundations. First, a deep understanding of the qualitative behavior of marked graphs leads to a general decomposition technique. Second, after the decomposition phase, an iterative response time approximation method is applied for the computation of the throughput. Experimental results on several examples generally have an error of less than 3%. The state space is usually reduced by more than one order of magnitude; therefore, the analysis of otherwise intractable systems is possible.>

Embedded in the divide-and-conquer paradigm, the authors introduce a technique for iterative analysis of stochastic marked graphs. The basic idea is to split the original net system into two parts. It is demonstrated on a model which represents the implementation of a Kanban manufacturing system. From the stochastic perspective, the throughput computation on partial subnets uses a response time approximation. Experimental results on several examples were usually pessimistic with respect to the throughput with an error of less than 3-5%. The computational effort was usually reduced by more than one or two orders of magnitude.>

The reduction of the state space of generalized stochastic Petri net (GSPN) models is discussed. For a certain class of GSPNs it is possible to analyze subnets in isolation by keeping the number of tokens in the net constant. The authors construct a flow equivalent net (FEN), which has the same temporal and input/output properties of the original net, but with a strongly reduced state space. The FEN is substituted back into the complement of the original net.>

A performance analysis of Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS) software has been conducted by using the generalized stochastic Petri net (GSPN). The criteria used in the evaluation are average service waiting, processing, and transporting times, and system utilization. The feasibility of using MMS for a robotic platform system is discussed based on the performance evaluation. It is shown that the service arriving rate has a significant effect on several important performance indices, such as the number of waiting services and system utilization. This indicates that MMS performance is quite sensitive to the application environments. Therefore, for real-time control systems with high communication intensity, the time delay through MMS might be unacceptable and some service requests may have to be balked. To solve the problem, one has either to reduce the intensity of message transferring in the system or to simplify MMS communication protocol, or do both.>