Deciding a class of path formulas for conflict-free Petri nets
Journal
Theory of Computing Systems
Journal Volume
30
Journal Issue
5
Pages
475-494
Date Issued
1997
Author(s)
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to develop a unified approach for deriving complexity results for problems concerning conflict-free Petri nets. To do so, we first define a class of formulas for paths in Petri nets. We then show that answering the satisfiability problem for conflict-free Petri nets is tantamount to solving a system of linear inequalities (which is known to be in P). Since a wide spectrum of Petri net problems (including various fairness-related problems) can be reduced to the satisfiability problem in a straightforward manner, our approach offers an umbrella under which many Petri net problems for conflict-free Petri nets can be shown to be solvable in polynomial time. As a side-product, our analysis provides evidence as to why detecting unboundedness for conflict-free Petri nets is easier (provided P ≠ NP) than for normal and sinkless Petri nets (which are two classes that properly contain conflict-free Petri nets).
SDGs
Type
journal article