Virtual Modules in Discrete-Event Systems: Achieving Modular Diagnosability

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to enforce modular diagnosability in discrete-event systems by creating virtual modules through partitioning, supported by structural analysis to manage computational complexity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to achieve modular diagnosability by combining modules into virtual modules and analyzing system structure to reduce complexity.

Findings

Structural analysis improves diagnosability enforcement

Partitioning into virtual modules is effective

Method handles systems with observable modules

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of enforcing modular diagnosability for discrete-event systems that don't satisfy this property by their natural modularity. We introduce an approach to achieve this property combining existing modules into new virtual modules. An underlining mathematical problem is to find a partition of a set, such that the partition satisfies the required property. The time complexity of such problem is very high. To overcome it, the paper introduces a structural analysis of the system's modules. In the analysis we focus on the case when the modules participate in diagnosis with their observations, rather then the case when indistinguishable observations are blocked due to concurrency.