DISTRIBUTED DEADLOCK DETECTION ALGORITHMS

A distributed system consists of a set of loosely connected state machines which do not share a global memory. The global state of the system depends on the state of each process in the system. The set of global states can be split up into two categories, legal and illegal. This paper deals with methods of detecting deadlocks in distributed systems. One way that has been used to detect deadlocks is by sending probes around the system. If a process thinks that it may be deadlocked, it initiates a probe. If the probe is received by the initiator, the initiator declares deadlock. This paper uses the idea of states of processes In order to detect the deadlock. The algorithm runs continually and does not have to be initiated. This paper presents deadlock detection algorithms for single and multiple outstanding requests. A method for deadlock resolution is also discussed. The algorithms detect all deadlocks and do not detect false deadlocks.