Partial order techniques for distributed discrete event systems: why you can't avoid using them

This paper serves as a support for the plenary address given by the second author during the conference. We explain why using partial orders cannot be avoided for the algorithms to properly scale up, when handling large distributed discrete event systems - in this paper we focus on DES monitoring or supervision, not control. A report detailing this abstract is available (E. Fabre and A. Benveniste, 2006). The techniques reported here were used in an industrial context for fault management and alarm correlation in telecommunications networks