Detecting and resolving deadlocks in mobile agent systems. (October 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yang, Yong; Lu, Wei; Xing, Weiwei; Wang, Liqiang; Che, Xiaoping; Chen, Lei
• Is Part Of: Journal of visual languages & computing. Volume 42(2017)
• Page Start: 23
• Page End: 30
• Publication Date: 2017-10
• Subjects: Deadlock detection -- Deadlock resolution -- Mobile agent system -- Concurrent execution -- Priority-based -- Lazy reaction; Visual programming languages (Computer science) -- Periodicals; Visual programming (Computer science) -- Periodicals; Programming languages (Electronic computers) -- Semantics -- Periodicals; Langages de programmation visuelle -- Périodiques; Programmation visuelle -- Périodiques; Langages de programmation -- Sémantique -- Périodiques; Programming languages (Electronic computers) -- Semantics; Visual programming (Computer science); Visual programming languages (Computer science); Periodicals; Electronic journals; 005
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jvlc.2017.08.002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1045-926X

Abstract

Abstract: Mobile agents environment is a new application paradigm with unique features such as mobility and autonomy. Traditional deadlock detection algorithms in distributed computing systems do not work well in mobile agent systems due to the unique feature property of the mobile agent. Existing deadlock detection and resolution algorithms in mobile agent systems have limitations such as performance inefficiency and duplicate detection/resolution when multiple mobile agents simultaneously detect/resolve the same deadlock. To address these problems, we propose an improved deadlock detection and resolution algorithm that adopts priority-based technique and lazy reaction strategy. The priority-based technique aims to ensure that there is only one instance of deadlock detection and resolution, and it also helps reduce mobile agent movement and data traffic together with the lazy reaction strategy. The liveness and safety properties of the proposed algorithm are proved in this paper. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed algorithm provides better performance in terms of agent movement, data traffic, and execution time.