Automatic Code Generation from Coloured Petri Nets for an Access Control System

We describe in this paper a general method for automatic code generation from Coloured Petri Nets (CP-nets or CPN). The method is supported by the Design/CPN tool which has been extended during the past few years, such that it also can be used to generate code automatically from a CPN model. We do not describe the algorithms for code generation but rather the context such a tool is used in. The rough outline of the method is as follows. One models the system of interest with CP-nets and Design/CPN. The modelled system behaviour is debugged and analysed, and when one has significant confidence in the model then the automatic code generation tool is applied, giving the final executable implementation as a result. Thus the behaviour of the model and executable are identical, and the traditional implementation phase has been eliminated. In this paper we demonstrate that the method is usable in practice for an industrial example, namely an access control system developed by the Danish security company Dalcotech A/S. This CPN model is a first version of the next generation of access control systems to be developed by Dalcotech. We describe the model and how they apply the automatic code generation method in order to obtain a system implementation quickly and safely. In this way Dalcotech now has the capability to reduce the time spent in the implementation phase dramatically. Another benefit is that they also dramatically reduce the amount of time spent on debugging the implementation.