A formal approach to system design and refinement

The Petri net formalism is used in the synthesis of system designs. A methodology is used that makes it possible to synthesize arbitrary size well-behaved Petri nets, using a stepwise refinement technique. This technique provides a method for constructing large systems that are well-behaved by design. The steps that are required in developing a synthesis procedure are outlined and brief mention is made of some of the work that has been done in this area. A subclass of nets called information flow nets (IFNs) is proposed, and the notion of a well-behaved IFN is defined. A refinement procedure for IFNs is presented, and the conditions required for the refinement procedure to preserve well-behavedness are derived. The theorem of refinement of IFNs is given. The author formulates appropriate interpretations for the properties of the nets, enabling him to synthesize systems in different applications