Validation and analysis of JDF workflows using colored Petri nets
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsTong Sun, Raju Gottumukkala, Michael Shepherd
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for translating a JDF workflow into a colored Petri net representation. Once the workflow has been converted, the colored Petri net is validated and analyzed. This provides the ability to identify potential deadlock conditions within a JDF workflow. In addition, the model network can be used to simulate throughput and turnaround time of a workflow and the effects of resources arriving at various times.
Claims20
a method of assessing a workflow for a print job prior to:
- execution, the method comprising:
- programmatically deriving the operational semantics of the workflow into a colored Petri net;
- analyzing the colored Petri net workflow to check for syntactic and semantic correctness of the workflow;
- and
- simulating the colored Petri net workflow for a plurality of performance metrics.
A system for assessing a Job Definition Format (JDF) workflow prior to execution, the system comprising:
- a JDF job;
- a JDF parser and graph generator;
- a JDF to colored Petri net transformer;
- a JDF and capability descriptions database;
- a color generator;
- and
- a colored Petri net analyzer.
The system defined in claim 10, further comprising a graphical user interface for receiving user data.
A workflow validation and analysis system comprising:
- derivation means operative to programmatically derive the operational semantics of the workflow into a colored Petri net;
- analyzing means operative to analyze the colored Petri net workflow to check for syntactic and semantic correctness of the workflow;
- and
- simulation means operative to simulate the colored Petri net workflow for a plurality of performance metrics, wherein the performance metrics include at least one of cost, throughput, turnaround time, efficiency, resource waiting time, and waste.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.