Section: Software

Synet : A General Petri-Net Sythesis Toolbox

Participant : Benoît Caillaud.

http://www.irisa.fr/s4/tools/synet/

Synet is a software tool for the synthesis of bounded and unbounded Petri-nets, based on the theory of regions  [31] . It can synthesize Petri-nets from automata or regular expression and can be configured by command-line options to synthesize nets modulo graph isomorphism or language equality. Petri nets computed by Synet can be displayed using the GraphViz 2D graph layout software, or saved to a file for further transformation and analysis.

The tool actually implements two linear-algebraic synthesis methods: A first method uses the simplex algorithm and the second one is based on the computation of extremal rays of polyhedral cones, using Chernikova's algorithm  [34] . Both methods imply that the input graphs are given by extension. Nevertheless, Synet yields good performances on many practical use-cases and is the only tool supporting unbounded net synthesis.

The main application of Synet is the synthesis of communicating distributed protocols and controllers  [30] . Synthesis is constrained to produce so-called distributables nets  [33] , a class of nets that can be turned into networks of communicating automata by automated methods. This allows to divide the synthesis problem in two steps: Given the specification of a protocol as a finite automaton, (i) synthesize (if exists) a distributable net, and then (ii) derive a network of communicating automata from the distributable net. While the second step is automatic and straightforward, the first step is in essence a computer assisted design task, where the distributed Petri-net synthesis algorithm helps the designer to refine the protocol specification into a graph isomorphic to the marking graph of a distributable net.