Degrees of Non-determinism and Concurrency: A Petri Net View

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present an introduction to the theory of Petri nets. The subject matter of this theory is distributed systems and processes. In our presentation, we shall emphasise concepts at the expense of specific results and techniques. Applications of the theory, though many and varied, will not be dealt with here. Even in dealing with the concepts, we shall focus on those that we believe are relevant to the study of distributed systems in general (independent of the specific framework one might choose). In the concluding part, we will attempt a broader sketch of the scope and contents of net theory.