CPN Modelling of an Object Based System: The ODP Trader

Advances in computing power and networking technologies are leading the way to a new generation of information systems, where heterogeneous computers share resources and cooperate in a distributed manner. Such systems are inherently complex due to concurrency and synchronisation of activities operating in parallel, making design and implementation much more challenging than yesterday’s stand-alone personal computers. In order to engineer these Open Distributed Systems, tools are required to aid in the design and analysis processes. In this paper, Coloured Petri Nets and the Design/CPN™ tool are used to model the ODP Trader which has been recently standardised by ISO and ITU-T. The Trader is presented in an electronic commerce environment, where interworking of Traders is demonstrated.