Approach for Performance Analysis of Arbitrary Stochastic Workflow Nets

In the existing approaches for performance analysis of WorkFlow nets (WF-nets), there is much restrictive for the time distribution functions of the activities in the model. Because the firing delay of different transitions in the WF-nets may be based on different distribution conditions, this paper introduces Moment Generating Function (MGF). Firstly, this paper integrates the analysis approach for Petri nets reachability graph, and translates the arbitrary stochastic WF-nets into reachability graph. Secondly, based on reducing the vanishing states of reachability graph, transformation forms of arrival time between different states in the original WF-nets can be obtained. And then, this paper puts forward and improves a formula to substitute the MGF of the entire nets with the transfer function of WF-nets. Thirdly, based on the characteristics of MGF, this paper analyzes the system performance of WF-nets. Finally, this paper gives an example to verify the approach for the time performance analysis of WF-nets.