Unit III

DISTRIBUTED MUTUAL EXCLUSION ALGORITHMS

Introduction-Lamport’s algorithm-Ricart–Agrawala algorithm-Quorum-based mutual exclusion

algorithms-Maekawa’s algorithm-Suzuki–Kasami’s broadcast algorithm.

Mutual exclusion:

Mutual exclusion in a distributed system states that only one process is allowed to execute the critical section
(CS) at any given time.

Requirements of mutual exclusion algorithms:

 No Deadlock:

Two or more site should not endlessly wait for any message that will never arrive.

 No Starvation:

Every site who wants to execute critical section should get an opportunity to execute it in finite time.

 Fairness:

Each site should get a fair chance to execute critical section.

 Fault Tolerance:

In case of failure, it should be able to recognize it by itself in order to continue functioning without any
disruption.

.
Performance metrics:

 Message complexity: The total number of messages exchanged in the system for one critical section (CS)
execution.

 Synchronization delay: The time between one site leaving the CS and another site entering the CS.

 Response time: Response time is the time interval from when a process sends a request to enter the
critical section (CS) until it finishes its execution inside the CS.

 System throughput: The rate at which the system completes CS executions. If SD is the
synchronization delay and E is the average critical section execution time.
Explain different mutual exclusion algorithms in detail.

Lamport’s Algorithm
 Lamport Distributed Mutual Exclusion Algorithm is a permission based algorithm proposed by
Lamport.
 Three type of messages ( REQUEST, REPLY and RELEASE) are used.
 A site send a REQUEST message to all other site to get their permission to enter critical section.
 A site send a REPLY message to requesting site to give its permission to enter the critical section.
 A site send a RELEASE message to all other site upon exiting the critical section.
 Every site keeps a queue to store critical section requests ordered by their timestamps.
 Timestamp is used to determine priority of critical section requests.

Algorithm
 To enter Critical section:
o When a site Si wants to enter the critical section, it sends a request message Request(tsi, i) to all
other sites and places the request on request_queuei. Here, Tsi denotes the timestamp of Site Si
o When a site Sj receives the request message REQUEST(tsi, i) from site Si, it returns a time stamped
REPLY message to site Si and places the request of site Si on request_queuej
 To execute the critical section:
o Site Si must have received messages from all other sites with timestamps larger than its own
request's timestamp.
 To release the critical section:
o When a site Si exits the critical section, it removes its own request from the top of its request queue
and sends a time stamped RELEASE message to all other sites
o When a site Sj receives the time stamped RELEASE message from site Si, it removes the request of
Si from its request queue

Example:
 Message Complexity: Lamport’s Algorithm requires invocation of 3(N – 1) messages per critical section execution.

These 3(N – 1) messages involves

 (N – 1) request messages
 (N – 1) reply messages
 (N – 1) release messages

Explain Ricart–Agrawala Algorithm in detail.

RICART–AGRAWALA ALGORITHM

 Ricart–Agrawala algorithm is an algorithm to for mutual exclusion in a distributed system

proposed by Ricart and Agrawala.
 It follows permission based approach to ensure mutual exclusion.
 Two type of messages ( REQUEST and REPLY) are used.
 A site send a REQUEST message to all other site to get their permission to enter critical section.
 A site send a REPLY message to other site to give its permission to enter the critical section.
 Timestamp is used to determine priority of critical section requests.

Algorithm:
1. To enter Critical section:
o When a site Si wants to enter the critical section, it send a time stamped REQUEST message to all
other sites.
o When a site Sj receives a REQUEST message from site Si, It sends a REPLY message to site Si if
and only if
o Site Sj is neither requesting nor currently executing the critical section.
o In case Site Sj is requesting, the timestamp of Site S i‘s request is smaller than its own
request.
2. To execute the critical section:
o Site Si enters the critical section if it has received the REPLY message from all other sites.
 3. To release the critical section:
o Upon exiting site Si sends REPLY message to all the deferred requests.

Message Complexity: Ricart–Agrawala algorithm requires invocation of 2(N – 1) messages per critical section
execution.

These 2(N – 1) messages involves

 (N – 1) request messages
 (N – 1) reply messages
Explain Maekawa‘s Algorithm in detail.

Maekawa‘s Algorithm

 Maekawa’s Algorithm is quorum based approach to ensure mutual exclusion in distributed systems.
 Three type of messages ( REQUEST, REPLY and RELEASE) are used.
 A site send a REQUEST message to all other site to get their permission to enter critical section.
 A site send a REPLY message to requesting site to give its permission to enter the critical section.
 A site send a RELEASE message to all other site in its request set when exiting the critical section.

Algorithm

To enter Critical section:

 When a site Si wants to enter the critical section, it sends a request message REQUEST(i) to all other sites
in the request set Ri.
 When a site Sj receives the request message REQUEST(i) from site Si, it returns a REPLY message to
site Si if it has not sent a REPLY message to any other site. Otherwise, it queues up the request.

To execute the critical section:

 A site Si can enter the critical section if it has received the REPLY message from all the site in request
set Ri
To release the critical section:
 When a site Si exits the critical section, it sends RELEASE(i) message to all other sites in request set Ri
 When a site Sj receives the RELEASE(i) message from site Si, it send REPLY message to the next site
waiting in the queue and deletes that entry from the queue

Message Complexity: Maekawa’s Algorithm requires invocation of 3√N messages per critical section execution as
the size of a request set is √N. These 3√N messages involves.
 √N request messages
 √N reply messages
 √N release messages

Drawbacks of Maekawa’s Algorithm:

 This algorithm is deadlock prone because a site is exclusively locked by other sites and requests are not
prioritized by their timestamp.

Performance:
 Synchronization delay is equal to twice the message propagation delay time
 It requires 3√n messages per critical section execution.

Advantages of Maekawa’s Algorithm:

 Low Message Complexity

 Scalability
 Fairness
Explain Suzuki–Kasami’s broadcast algorithm in detail.

Suzuki–Kasami’s broadcast algorithm:

 Suzuki–Kasami algorithm is a token-based algorithm for achieving mutual exclusion in distributed

systems.
 This is modification of Ricart–Agrawala algorithm which uses REQUEST and REPLY
messages to ensure mutual exclusion.
 In token-based algorithms, A site is allowed to enter its critical section if it possesses the
unique token

Data structure and Notations:

 RN[1…N]: Tracks the largest sequence number of request messages received from other sites.
 LN[1…N]: This array is used by the token. Stores the sequence number of the most recent token
used by each site.
 Queue Q: This queue keeps track of which sites are waiting for the token.

Algorithm:

1. To enter Critical section:

o When a site Si wants to enter the critical section and it does not have the token then it increments its
sequence number RNi[i] and sends a request message REQUEST(i, sn) to all other sites in order to
request the token. Here sn is update value of RNi[i]
o When a site Sj receives the request message REQUEST(i, sn) from site Si,
it sets RNj[i] to maximum of RNj[i] and sn i.e RNj[i] = max(RNj[i], sn).
o After updating RNj[i], Site Sj sends the token to site Si if it has token.
2. To execute the critical section:
o Site Si executes the critical section if it has acquired the token.
3. To release the critical section:
After finishing the execution Site S i exits the critical section and does following:
o sets LN[i] = RNi[i] to indicate that its critical section request RNi[i] has been executed
o After above updation, if the Queue Q is non-empty, it pops a site ID from the Q and sends the
token to site indicated by popped ID.
o If the queue Q is empty, it keeps the token

Message Complexity:

The algorithm requires 0 message invocation if the site already holds the idle token at the time of critical
section request or maximum of N message per critical section execution. This N messages involves

a. (N – 1) request messages
b. 1 reply message