Towards the performance evaluation of distributed computing systems

The aims of this paper are twofold. Firstly, it aims to describe progress towards the development of a performance modelling technique which is appropriate to problems involving communicating parallel activities. Secondly, in doing this, it aims to provide an example of how differing areas of research may be related to their mutual benefit, and to indicate how facets of them may be combined to provide a valuable design tool. We draw on two current areas of research: a method of expression of concurrent activities in a programming language called EPL; and analytical performance modelling techniques based on probabilistic grammars, finite state machines and computation structures. These two areas are brought together by re-casting salient features in Petri net form. Only a sub-class of Petri nets is needed, giving valuable properties which are exploited in determining the extent to which current analytical techniques can be used. A method of modelling using these techniques in combination with simulation techniques is proposed.