Performance Analysis of Distributed Deadlock Detection Algorithms

The paper presents a probabilistic performance analysis of a deadlock detection algorithm in distributed systems. Although there has been extensive study on deadlock detection algorithms in distributed systems, little attention has been paid to the study of the performance of these algorithms. Most work on performance study has been achieved through simulation but not through an analytic model. Min (1990), to the best of our knowledge, made the sole attempt to evaluate the performance of distributed deadlock detection algorithms analytically. Being different from Min's, our analytic approach takes the time-dependent behavior of each process into consideration rather than simply taking the mean-value estimation. Furthermore, the relation among the times when deadlocked processes become blocked is studied, which enhances the accuracy of the analysis. We measure performance metrics such as duration of deadlock, the number of algorithm invocations, and the mean waiting time of a blocked process. It is shown that the analytic estimates are nearly consistent with simulation results.