A practical application of Petri nets in the software safety analysis of a real-time military system.

Abstract

This thesis evaluates the usefulness of Petri net modeling for software safety analysis of a real-time system. The system is a safety arming device for a guided missile. The features of basic Petri net modeling are discussed in relation to the kinds of components that are found in real-time systems. This thesis proposes a methodology for systematically constructing a Petri net model from system and software design information. Several techniques for analyzing the resulting Petri net model are illustrated and evaluated for appropriateness.