  When considering distributed systems, it is a central issue how to deal with
interactions between components. In this paper, we investigate the paradigms of
synchronous and asynchronous interaction in the context of distributed systems.
We investigate to what extent or under which conditions synchronous interaction
is a valid concept for specification and implementation of such systems. We
choose Petri nets as our system model and consider different notions of
distribution by associating locations to elements of nets. First, we
investigate the concept of simultaneity which is inherent in the semantics of
Petri nets when transitions have multiple input places. We assume that tokens
may only be taken instantaneously by transitions on the same location. We
exhibit a hierarchy of `asynchronous' Petri net classes by different
assumptions on possible distributions. Alternatively, we assume that the
synchronisations specified in a Petri net are crucial system properties. Hence
transitions and their preplaces may no longer placed on separate locations. We
then answer the question which systems may be implemented in a distributed way
without restricting concurrency, assuming that locations are inherently
sequential. It turns out that in both settings we find semi-structural
properties of Petri nets describing exactly the problematic situations for
interactions in distributed systems.
