The dining philosophers problem and its decentralisation

Abstract

This paper deals with resource contention in a distributed system, using the dining philosophers problem as a system model. The various nuances of the problem are first considered in a centralised setting. This leads to the development of a centralised solution which, in addition to preventing deadlock, balances the competing aims of fairness and concurrency. The implications of the distributed diners problem are discussed and a solution is presented which is a development of the centralised approach. © 1992.