Decentralized Supervisory Control of Discrete-Event Systems Over Communication Networks

In this paper, we investigate the problem of designing embedded decentralized discrete-event controllers over communication networks. It is assumed that there is a path between every pair of processes in the network. The control objective is specified by a prefix-closed language that is controllable and observable, but not coobservable. The paper is focused on communication among processes necessary to meet the control objective. As such, process models are left unspecified; it is only required that disabling any of the controllable events do not block communication among processes. Our findings support the idea that in the presence of ideal communication channels, the protocol design for noncoobservable specifications can be reduced to the synthesis of communicating decentralized supervisors, and we propose solutions for a restricted class of problems. The paper is concluded with a positive result for the case where channels are unreliable.