Skip to main content

Computing with Infinitely Many Processes

under assumptions on concurrency and participation (Extended abstract)

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1914))

Abstract

We explore four classic problems in concurrent computing (election, mutual exclusion, consensus, and naming) when the number of processes which may participate is infinite. Partial information about the number of actually participating processes and the concurrency level is shown to affect the possibility and complexity of solving these problems. We survey and generalize work carried out in models with finite bounds on the number of processes, and prove several new results. These include improved bounds for election when participation is required and a new adaptive algorithm for star vat ion-free mutual exclusion in a model with unbounded concurrency. We also explore models where objects stronger than atomic registers, such as test&set bits, semaphores or read-modify- write registers, are used.

AT&T Labs, 180 Park Av., Florham Park, NJ 07932-0971. mischu@research.att.com.

The Open University, 16 Klausner st., P.O.B. 39328, Tel-Aviv 61392, Israel, and AT&T Labs. gadi@cs.openu.ac.il.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. [B+82]_J. E. Burns, P. Jackson, N. A. Lynch, M. J. Fischer, and G. L. Peterson. Data requirements for implementation of Af-process mutual exclusion using a single shared variable. Journal of the ACM, 29(l):183–205, 1982

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. J. N. Burns and N. A. Lynch. Bounds on shared-memory for mutual exclusion. Information and Computation, 107(2): 171–184, December 1993.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. M. Choy and A.K. Singh. Adaptive solutions to the mutual exclusion problem. Distributed Computing, 8(1): 1–17, 1994.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. E. W. Dijkstra. Solution of a problem in concurrent programming control. Communications of the ACM, 8(9):569, 1965.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. [F+89]_M. J. Fischer, N. A. Lynch, J. E. Burns, and A. Borodin. Distributed FIFO allocation of identical resources using small shared space. ACM Trans, on Programming Languages and Systems, ll(l):90–114, January 1989.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. M. J. Fischer, N. A. Lynch, and M. S. Paterson. Impossibility of distributed consensus with one faulty process. Journal of the ACM, 32(2):374–382, 1985.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  7. S. A. Friedberg and G. L. Peterson. An efficient solution to the mutual exclusion problem using weak semaphores. Information Processing Letters, 25(5):343–347, 1987.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  8. E. Gafni and E. Koutsoupias. On uniform protocols. http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~eli/eli.html, 1998.

  9. L. Lamport. A fast mutual exclusion algorithm. ACM Trans, on Computer Systems, 5(1):1–11, 1987.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. M. C. Loui and H. Abu-Amara. Memory requirements for agreement among unreliable asynchronous processes. Advances in Computing Research, 4:163–183, 1987.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. M. Merritt and G. Taubenfeld. Speeding Lamport’s fast mutual exclusion algorithm. Information Processing Letters, 45:137–142, 1993. (Also published as an AT&T technical memorandum in May 1991.)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. G. L. Peterson. New bounds on mutual exclusion problems. Technical Report TR68, University of Rochester, February 1980 (Corrected, Nov. 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  13. E. Styer and G. L. Peterson. Tight bounds for shared memory symmetric mutual exclusion problems. In Proc. 8th PODC, pages 177–191, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  14. J-H. Yang and J.H. Anderson. Time bounds for mutual exclusion and related problems. In Proc. 26th ACM Symp. on Theory of Computing, May 1994.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Merritt, M., Taubenfeld, G. (2000). Computing with Infinitely Many Processes. In: Herlihy, M. (eds) Distributed Computing. DISC 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1914. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-40026-5_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-40026-5_11

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-41143-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-40026-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics