The Object Orientation of Object Petri Nets

This paper informally introduces Object Petri Nets (OPNs) with a number of examples and discusses how this kind of Petri Net addresses a number of issues pertinent to Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming Languages. OPNs support a thorough integration of object-oriented concepts into Petri Nets, including inheritance and the associated polymorphism and dynamic binding. They have a single class hierarchy which includes both token types and subnet types, thereby allowing multiple levels of activity in the net. Yet OPNs retain the important property of being able to be transformed into behaviourally equivalent Coloured Petri Nets (CPNs), which can provide a foundation for adapting existing analysis techniques such as invariant analysis.