Revisiting deadlock prevention: a probabilistic approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a probabilistic deadlock prevention method based on priority digraphs, offering a more flexible approach that extends traditional cycle prevention techniques in complex wait models.

Contribution

It proposes a novel probabilistic mechanism for deadlock prevention using priority digraphs, expanding applicability to general wait models.

Findings

Probabilistic mechanism effectively prevents deadlocks in complex models

Priority digraphs enable less restrictive deadlock prevention

Analysis shows the mechanism's key properties and effectiveness

Abstract

We revisit the deadlock-prevention problem by focusing on priority digraphs instead of the traditional wait-for digraphs. This has allowed us to formulate deadlock prevention in terms of prohibiting the occurrence of directed cycles even in the most general of wait models (the so-called AND-OR model, in which prohibiting wait-for directed cycles is generally overly restrictive). For a particular case in which the priority digraphs are somewhat simplified, we introduce a Las Vegas probabilistic mechanism for resource granting and analyze its key aspects in detail.