Sufficient condition for a communication deadlock and distributed deadlock detection

• Published in: IEEE transactions on software engineering Vol. 15; no. 12; pp. 1587 - 1595
• Main Authors: Wojcik, B.E., Wojcik, Z.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-12-1989; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; IEEE Computer Society
• Subjects: Algorithms; Applied sciences; Communication; Communication channels; Computer science; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Computers; Data communications; Distributed processing; Exact sciences and technology; Fault tolerance; Hardware; Imaging phantoms; Mathematics; Messages; Network servers; Prevention; Protocol; Protocols; Resource management; Servers; Software; Software engineering; Statistics; Sufficient conditions; System recovery; Deadlock; Computer system; Distributed system; Detection; Message transmission; Transmission protocol
• ISSN: 0098-5589; 1939-3520
• DOI: 10.1109/32.58770

The necessary and sufficient condition for deadlock in a distributed system and an algorithm for detection of a distributed deadlock based on the sufficient condition are formulated. The protocol formulated, checks all wait-for contiguous requests in one iteration. A cycle is detected when a query message reaches the initiator. A wait-for cycle is only the necessary condition for the distributed deadlock. A no-deadlock message is expected by the query initiator to infer a deadlock-free situation if at least one wait-for cycle is present. A no-deadlock message is issued by a dependent (query intercessor) that is not waiting-for. No no-deadlock message implies a deadlock, and processes listed in the received query messages are the processes involved in a distributed deadlock. Properties of the protocol are discussed. The authors show that a replication of a requested higher-priority (or older) process can prevent a distributed deadlock (in a continuous deadlock treatment). A replication is shown to recover (in a periodical deadlock handling) a sequence of processes from an indefinite wait-die scheme.< >