Real Time Management Of Resource Allocation Systems

Real-Time Management of Resource Allocation Systems focuses on the problem of managing the resource allocation taking place within the operational context of many contemporary technological applications, including flexibly automated production systems, automated railway and/or monorail transportation systems, electronic workflow management systems, and business transaction supporting systems. A distinct trait of all these applications is that they limit the role of the human element to remote high-level supervision, while placing the burden of the real-time monitoring and coordination of the ongoing activity upon a computerized control system. Hence, any applicable control paradigm must address not only the issues of throughput maximization, work-in-process inventory reduction, and delay and cost minimization, that have been the typical concerns for past studies on resource allocation, but it must also guarantee the operational correctness and the behavioral consistency of the underlying automated system. The resulting problem is rather novel for the developers of these systems, since, in the past, many of its facets were left to the jurisdiction of the present human intelligence. It is also complex, due to the high levels of choice – otherwise known as flexibility – inherent in the operation of these environments.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Principles of Distributed Systems, OPODIS 2006, held at Bordeaux, France, in December 2006. The 28 revised full papers presented together with two invited talks address all current issues in theory, specification, design and implementation of distributed and embedded systems.

Illustrated with real-life manufacturing examples, Formal Methods in Manufacturing provides state-of-the-art solutions to common problems in manufacturing systems. Assuming some knowledge of discrete event systems theory, the book first delivers a detailed introduction to the most important formalisms used for the modeling, analysis, and control of manufacturing systems (including Petri nets, automata, and max-plus algebra), explaining the advantages of each formal method. It then employs the different formalisms to solve specific problems taken from today’s industrial world, such as modeling and simulation, supervisory control (including deadlock prevention) in a distributed and/or decentralized environment, performance evaluation (including scheduling and optimization), fault diagnosis and diagnosability analysis, and reconfiguration. Containing chapters written by leading experts in their respective fields, Formal Methods in Manufacturing helps researchers and application engineers handle fundamental principles and deal with typical quality goals in the design and operation of manufacturing systems.

Deadlock problems in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) have received more and more attention in the last two decades. Petri nets are one of the more promising mathematical tools for tackling deadlocks in various resource allocation systems. In a system modeled with Petri nets, siphons are tied to the occurrence of deadlock states as a structural object. The book systematically introduces the novel theory of siphons, traps, and elementary siphons of Petri nets as well as the deadlock control strategies for FMS developed from it. Deadlock prevention methods are examined comparatively. The many FMS examples presented to demonstrate the concepts and results of this book range from the simple to the complex. Importantly, to inspire and motive the reader’s interest in further research, a number of interesting and open problems in this area are proposed at the end of each chapter.

This handbook incorporates new developments in automation. It also presents a widespread and well-structured conglomeration of new emerging application areas, such as medical systems and health, transportation, security and maintenance, service, construction and retail as well as production or logistics. The handbook is not only an ideal resource for automation experts but also for people new to this expanding field.

This book provides essential information on Petri net theory and Petri net-based model checking methods. As for the Petri net theory, it involves the interleaving semantics and concurrency semantics of elementary net systems, some important net structures (e.g., invariant, repetitive vector, siphon, and trap), some classical net subclasses with special structures (e.g., state machine, marked graph, free-choice net,asymmetric-choice net, normal net, and weakly persistent net), and some basic properties (e.g., reachability, liveness, deadlock, and soundness). It also involves four high-level Petri nets: knowledge-oriented Petri nets, Petri nets with insecure places, time Petri nets, and plain time Petri nets with priorities, focusing on different fields of application. As for the model checking methods, this book introduces readers to computation tree logic (CTL), computation tree logic of knowledge (CTLK), and timed computation tree logic (TCTL), as well as Petri net-based methods for checking them. The basic principle of the reduced ordered binary decision diagram (ROBDD) is employed to compress the state space used in these model checking procedures. The book also covers time-soundness for time Petri nets and secure bisimulation for Petri nets with insecure places, both of which are based on the bisimulation theory. As such, it offers an introduction to basic information on bisimulation theory.

Network Science and Cybersecurity introduces new research and development efforts for cybersecurity solutions and applications taking place within various U.S. Government Departments of Defense, industry and academic laboratories. This book examines new algorithms and tools, technology platforms and reconfigurable technologies for cybersecurity systems. Anomaly-based intrusion detection systems (IDS) are explored as a key component of any general network intrusion detection service, complementing signature-based IDS components by attempting to identify novel attacks. These attacks may not yet be known or have well-developed signatures. Methods are also suggested to simplify the construction of metrics in such a manner that they retain their ability to effectively cluster data, while simultaneously easing human interpretation of outliers. This is a professional book for practitioners or government employees working in cybersecurity, and can also be used as a reference. Advanced-level students in computer science or electrical engineering studying security will also find this book useful .

The increasing demand of processing a higher number of applications and related data on computing platforms has resulted in reliance on multi-/many-core chips as they facilitate parallel processing. However, there is a desire for these platforms to be energy-efficient and reliable, and they need to perform secure computations for the interest of the whole community. This book provides perspectives on the aforementioned aspects from leading researchers in terms of state-of-the-art contributions and upcoming trends.