Fuzzy-Timing Petri Net Modeling and Simulation of a Networked Virtual Environment: NICE

Yi ZHOU  Tadao MURATA  Thomas DEFANTI  Hui ZHANG  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals of Electronics, Communications and Computer Sciences   Vol.E83-A   No.11   pp.2166-2176
Publication Date: 2000/11/25
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8508
Type of Manuscript: INVITED PAPER (Special Section on Concurrent Systems Technology)
Category: 
Keyword: 
Petri nets,  networked-virtual environments,  fuzzy timing,  formal modeling,  

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Summary: 
Despite their attractive properties, networked virtual environments (net-VEs) are notoriously difficult to design, implement and test due to the concurrency, real-time and networking features in these systems. The current practice for net-VE design is basically trial and error, empirical, and totally lacks formal methods. This paper proposes to apply a Petri net formal modeling technique to a net-VE: NICE (Narrative Immersive Constructionist/Collaborative Environment), predict the net-VE performance based on simulation, and improve the net-VE performance. NICE is essentially a network of collaborative virtual reality systems called CAVE-(CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment). First, we present extended fuzzy-timing Petri net models of both CAVE and NICE. Then, by using these models and Design/CPN as the simulation tool, we have conducted various simulations to study real-time behavior, network effects and performance (latencies and jitters) of NICE. Our simulation results are consistent with experimental data.