Non-exponential stochastic Petri nets: an overview of methods and techniques

The analysis of stochastic systems with non-exponential timing requires the development of suitable modeling tools. Recently, some effort has been dev oted to generalize the concept of Stochastic Petri nets, by allowing the fi ring times to be generally distributed. The evolution of the Petri Net (PN) in time becomes a stochastic process, for which in general, no analytical solution is available. The paper surveys suitable restrictions of the PN mo del with generally distributed transition times, that have appeared in the literature, and compares these models from the point of view of the modelin g power and the numerical complexity.