A max-plus algebra is a semiring over the union of real numbers and , equipped with maximum and addition as the two binary operations. It can be used appropriately to determine marking times within a given Petri net and a vector filled with marking state at the beginning.
Let a and b be real scalars or ε. Then the operations maximum (implied by the max operator ) and addition (plus operator ) for these scalars are defined as
Watch: Max-operator can easily be confused with the addition operation. Similar to the conventional algebra, all - operations have a higher precedence than - operations.