The verification of communication protocols using numerical Petri nets

A methodology is presented for the verification of communication protocols which involves a computer simulation, numerical Petri nets (NPN), and processing state transition diagrams (PSTD). NPNs act as a bridge between the subsystem PSTDs and the computer simulation, contributing both to the human understanding of complex systems and to the definition of the simulation models. Application of the model to the verification of a simple call establishment protocol for a packet switching network is illustrated by examples.