Mutual exclusion between neighboring nodes in an arbitrary system graph tree that stabilizes using read/write atomicity

Abstract

Our purpose in this paper is to propose a new protocol that can ensure mutual exclusion betw een neighboring nodes in an arbitrary distributed system, i.e., under the given protocol no tw oneighboring nodes can execute their critical sections concurrently. This protocol can be used to run a serial model self stabilizing algorithm in a distributed environment that accepts as atomic operations only "send a message", "receiv e a message", and "update a state". Unlike the scheme in [1], our protocol does not use time-stamps (which are basically unbounded integers); our protocol is a generalization of the protocol described in [2] which was restricted to work only for tree structured distributed systems. Lik e the protocol in [2], our algorithm uses only bounded integers and can be easily implemented. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1999.