Diagnosis of computer systems by stochastic Petri nets Part II (Theory)

This paper focuses on methodology underlying the application to fault tolerant computer systems with no down communication' capability of stochastic Petri nets with general firing times. Based on a formal specification of the stochastic Petri net, we provide criteria for the marking process to be a regenerative process in continuous time with finite cycle-length moments. These results lead to strongly consistent point estimates and asymptotic confidence intervals for limiting system availability indices. We also show how the building blocks of stochastic Petri nets with general firing times facilitate the modeling of non-deterministic transition firing and illustrate the use of interrupter input places' for graphical representation of transition interruptions.