Using modular Petri nets for developing telecommunication software

The development and maintenance of a large software project requires a coherent set of tools and methodologies in order to produce consistent specifications, documentation and code. The application of Petri nets to the modeling of large real world systems has been, up to recent years, hindered by the lack of effective mechanisms for structuring and analyzing net based models in a modular way. On the other hand, the introduction of hierarchical CPN´s and of other analogous extensions of High-level Petri nets allows the modeled system to be inspected at varying levels of detail and facilitates re-use of components of the model. This paper presents the evaluation of some of these new methodologies for the development of a real project and the effective use of one of them