Generalized Dining Philosophers Problem

Title: Generalized Dining Philosophers Problem

Research Question: Can we develop a randomized algorithm that guarantees progress and lockout-freedom for the generalized dining philosophers problem, even in the presence of adversary schedulers and arbitrary connection topologies?

Methodology: The researchers focused on symmetric, fully distributed systems. They addressed the problem of guaranteeing progress and lockout-freedom by using randomized algorithms. They proposed an alternative algorithm based on the idea of letting philosophers assign a random priority to their adjacent forks.

Results: The researchers showed that the well-known algorithms of Lehmann and Rabin do not work in the generalized case. They proposed an alternative algorithm that successfully guarantees progress and lockout-freedom, even in the presence of adversary schedulers and arbitrary connection topologies.

Implications: This research has significant implications for the field of distributed systems. It provides a solution to the generalized dining philosophers problem, which can be applied to various real-world scenarios. The research also highlights the importance of randomized algorithms in solving complex problems in distributed systems.

Link to Article: https://arxiv.org/abs/0109003v1 Authors: arXiv ID: 0109003v1