Applications of petri networks to transportation network modeling

The development of a mathematical modular framework based on Petri network (PN) theory to model a traffic network is the subject of this paper. Traffic intersections are the primitive elements of a transportation network and are characterized as event-driven and asynchronous systems. Petri networks have been utilized to model these discrete event systems; further analysis of their structure can reveal information relevant to the concurrency, parallelism, synchronization, and deadlock avoidance issues. The Petri-net model of a generic traffic junction is presented, with its deadlock avoidance property proven. These modular networks are effective in synchronizing their components and can be used for modeling purposes of an asynchronous large-scale transportation system. The derived model is suitable for simulations on a multiprocessor computer since its program execution safety is secured. The software pseudocode for simulating a transportation network model on a multiprocessor system is presented.