s4hri / quantica

Distributed computing based on Petri networks

Quantica

Distributed computing based on Petri networks (PNs)

What is quantica?

Quantica is an Python open-source framework for modeling distributed computing based on PNs theory.

Quantica is compatible with Python versions >= 3.8

How does it work ?

As explained in PN's theory, a network consists of places and transitions. Transitions are event-based conditions which allow the places to be enabled.

Custom code execution

Places are the basic units of custom code execution. The code execution in Places is determined by the presence of tokens. In Quantica whenever a QPlace (a place in PN theory) receives a token, it executes its relative task immediately.

How to create a QNet ?

A simple network constisting of a place and a transition is shown below

from quantica.core import QNet

net = QNet('MyQNet')
P0 = net.createPlace(init_tokens=1)
T0 = net.createTransition()
net.connect(P0, T0, weight=1)

Acknowledgement

This work has been inspired by the lectures of Prof. Orazio Mirabella (University of Catania) and is based on the theory covered in the slides of Automation Control of Professor Alessandro De Luca (University of Rome - La Sapienza).

quantica's Issues

quanta seeds

• Quanta defines protocols and programming interfaces for managing synchronized executions of distributed processes.

• Quanta engine is based on Petri network's theory.

QUANTA QUANTUM

• A quantum (token in petri net) is a piece of data that triggers the execution of a node
• A quantum wraps an input/output type of data

QUANTA SYSTEM/NETWORK

• A Quanta system is a network (petri net)
• A system is set of interconnected nodes (places in petri net)

QUANTA NODE

• A node is a separated process responsible for the execution of a piece of code.
• A node is a stateless code that operates on a quantum.
• A node receive in input a quantum, executes its specific function on it and produce a quantum in output.
• Receiving a quantum triggers the execution of that node.
• A node use network sockets for receiving/sending quanta

QUANTA ENGINE

• Manages the registration of all the nodes in the networks
• Manages the configuration of the network
• Manages the execution of the network