Service Availability in Concurrent Systems - Part I: A Theory of Hierarchical Services of Interacting Processes

Service Availability in Concurrent Systems—Part I: A Theory of Hierarchical Services of Interacting Processes. M.S. FALLAH AND A.R. SHARAFAT The paper introduces an axiomatic model of concurrent systems through which a number of issues related to service availability including mutual exclusion, deadlock/starvation freedom, denial/quality of services and fault tolerance can be described in a cohesive manner. The paper starts from the claim that existing formal models of concurrent systems are not suited for the analysis of service availability. It develops the hierarchical services of interacting processes (HSIP) model which allows a system to be viewed both as a set of processes and as a set of services. Similarities between HSIP and CSP are outlined. The authors explain the three components that form a concurrent system in HSIP: the hierarchy, the timing and the computation model. The system hierarchy identifies the atomic services required in a system execution. The system timing and the system computation model enable the identification of the instants at which atomic services are requested. The paper gives the axioms that represent the availability of resources and atomic services and illustrates through examples the usefulness of HSIP in modelling concurrent systems. In a follow up [1], the authors analyse further the problem of system availability.

[1]  Edsger W. Dijkstra,et al.  Solution of a problem in concurrent programming control , 1965, CACM.

[2]  C. A. R. Hoare,et al.  Monitors: an operating system structuring concept , 1974, CACM.

[3]  C. A. R. Hoare,et al.  Communicating sequential processes , 1978, CACM.

[4]  Paul G. Spirakis,et al.  Real time resource allocation in distributed systems , 1982, PODC '82.

[5]  Eugene W. Stark.  Semaphore primitives and starvation-free mutual exclusion , 1982, JACM.

[6]  C. A. R. Hoare,et al.  A Theory of Communicating Sequential Processes , 1984, JACM.

[7]  Leslie Lamport,et al.  The mutual exclusion problem: part I—a theory of interprocess communication , 1986, JACM.

[8]  Edward D. Lazowska,et al.  Adaptive load sharing in homogeneous distributed systems , 1986, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[9]  Òòòðð,et al.  Shared-memory Mutual Exclusion: Major Research Trends Since 1986 , 1986 .

[10]  Michel Raynal,et al.  Algorithms for mutual exclusion , 1986 .

[11]  Jean Marcel Pallo.  Some Properties of the Rotation Lattice of Binary Trees , 1988, Comput. J..

[12]  A. W. Roscoe,et al.  A Timed Model for Communicating Sequential Processes , 1986, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[13]  Virgil D. Gligor,et al.  A formal specification and verification method for the prevention of denial of service , 1988, Proceedings. 1988 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

[14]  Fred B. Schneider,et al.  Implementing fault-tolerant services using the state machine approach: a tutorial , 1990, CSUR.

[15]  Jeff Magee,et al.  A flexible approach to evolution of reconfigurable systems , 1992, CDS.

[16]  Jonathan K. Millen,et al.  A resource allocation model for denial of service , 1992, Proceedings 1992 IEEE Computer Society Symposium on Research in Security and Privacy.

[17]  Anders P. Ravn,et al.  Duration Specifications for Shared Processors , 1992, FTRTFT.

[18]  M. C. Er.  Efficient Generation of k-ary Trees in Natural Order (Short Note) , 1992, Comput. J..

[19]  N. Lynch,et al.  Timing-based mutual exclusion , 1992, [1992] Proceedings Real-Time Systems Symposium.

[20]  William Stallings,et al.  Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles , 1991 .

[21]  M. Velazquez.  A Survey of Distributed Mutual Exclusion Algorithms , 1993 .

[22]  Andrew T. Campbell,et al.  A quality of service architecture , 1994, CCRV.

[23]  Pankaj Jalote,et al.  Fault tolerance in distributed systems , 1994 .

[24]  Chaochen Zhou,et al.  A Duration Calculus with Infinite Intervals , 1995, FCT.

[25]  Edward T. Ordman,et al.  Limitations of using tokens for mutual exclusion , 1995, CSC '95.

[26]  Jim Davies,et al.  A Brief History of Timed CSP , 1995, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[27]  Edmund M. Clarke,et al.  Formal Methods: State of the Art and Future Directions Working Group Members , 1996 .

[28]  Andrew William Roscoe,et al.  The Theory and Practice of Concurrency , 1997 .

[29]  Changjie Tang,et al.  Grammar-Oriented Enumeration of Binary Trees , 1997, Comput. J..

[30]  José E. Moreira,et al.  Dynamic resource management on distributed systems using reconfigurable applications , 1997, IBM J. Res. Dev..

[31]  James H. Anderson,et al.  Real-time computing with lock-free shared objects , 1997, TOCS.

[32]  Jonathan K. Millen.  Local reconfiguration policies , 1999, Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Cat. No.99CB36344).

[33]  Steve A. Schneider,et al.  Concurrent and Real-time Systems: The CSP Approach , 1999 .

[34]  Selim G. Akl,et al.  Generating Regular k-ary Trees Efficiently , 2000, Comput. J..

[35]  J. Ouaknine.  Discrete analysis of continuous behaviour in real-time concurrent systems , 2000 .

[36]  Eli Gafni,et al.  Analysis of Timing-Based Mutual Exclusion with Random Times , 2002, SIAM J. Comput..

[37]  Reuven Bar-Yehuda,et al.  A unified approach to approximating resource allocation and scheduling , 2001, JACM.

[38]  James H. Anderson.  Lamport on mutual exclusion: 27 years of planting seeds , 2001, PODC '01.

[39]  William Stallings,et al.  Operating Systems - Internals and Design Principles (7th ed.) , 2001 .

[40]  Ahmad R. Sharafat,et al.  A measure of resilience against denial of service attacks in computer networks , 2002, Comput. Syst. Sci. Eng..

[41]  Gavin Lowe,et al.  Quantifying information flow , 2002, Proceedings 15th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop. CSFW-15.

[42]  Frank Piessens,et al.  A survey of customizability in operating systems research , 2002, CSUR.

[43]  Daniel A. Menascé,et al.  QoS Issues in Web Services , 2002, IEEE Internet Comput..

[44]  Ahmad R. Sharafat,et al.  A Framework for the Analysis of Denial of Service Attacks , 2004, Comput. J..

[45]  Junji Shikata,et al.  Unconditionally Secure Anonymous Encryption and Group Authentication , 2006, Comput. J..

[46]  Chung-Ming Huang,et al.  Efficient and Provably Secure IP Multimedia Subsystem Authentication for UMTS , 2007, Comput. J..

[47]  Yuh-Min Tseng,et al.  A secure authenticated group key agreement protocol for resource-limited mobile devices , 2007, Comput. J..