We present a new distributed algorithm that detects and resolves communication deadlocks on-line, i.e., simultaneously detects and resolves deadlock as communication requests are made, at no additional message trafic overhead, and with bounded delay between the occurrence and detection of a deadlock. This is achieved via a novel technique for detecting knots, which sufice for the existence of communication deadlocks. Current distributed deadlock detection algorithms lack these features. Thus the algorithm is suitable for sofl real-time systems and large distributed systems. W e also prove that the algorithm detects communication deadlocks and that it is able to deal with false deadlocks.
Wee Keong Ng, Chinya V. Ravishankar