Re: [Openflow-dev] Workflow modelling techniques

[Paolo B. <p.b...@ic...>]

Hi Adrian,

we know petri nets, and if you see the model used in OpenFlow, you can find 
many analogies among the workflow model used in OpenFlow and the Petri Nets.

One of the first versions of OpenFlow was developed from Chautauqua:

http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~carlosm/chautauqua.html

that used a formalism called Information flow Control Net, which were similar 
to Petri Nets.

>
> I just recently discovered this excellent book:
>
>  Workflow Management
>  Models, Methods and Systems
>  Wil van der Aalst and Kees van Hee
>  MIT Press January 2002
>
>  http://mitpress.mit.edu/0262011891
>

[SNIP]

> The authors use petri nets as a formalisation for modelling workflow
> processes.
>
> Has anyone else found petri nets useful?  What other techniques do you
> find useful for modelling processes, especially highly parallel and/or
> conditional processes, and how do you go about translating the models
> to OpenFlow?
>

Using Petri Nets is useful for describing the general flow of work/actions 
inside the process. However, there is always the need to include further 
information (like, for example, the information requested and passed at each 
state). 

I guess the mapping among Petri Nets and OpenFlow processes could easily be 
one to one. Could be this useful for you ? We could work on how this could be 
accomplished. This could be one of the todo items we are trying to define for 
OpenFlow.

Best regards.

Paolo Bizzarri


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