A consensus-based ℓ-Exclusion algorithm for mobile ad hoc networks

This paper addresses the ℓ-Exclusion problem for mobile ad hoc networks. The ℓ-Exclusion problem, a generalization of distributed mutual exclusion problem, involves a group of processes, each of which intermittently requires access to one of ℓ identical resources or pieces of code called the critical section (CS). This paper presents a consensus-based mobility-aware ℓ-Exclusion (LE) algorithm that operates asynchronously and copes explicitly with arbitrary (possibly concurrent) topology changes associated with such networks. The algorithm can tolerate link changes or failures, sudden crashes or recoveries of at most ℓ − 1 mobile nodes. The algorithm is based on collection of enough consensuses for a mobile node intending to enter CS, and uses diffusing computations for this purpose. This paper presents a simulation to demonstrate that the proposed algorithm, as compared to the k-Reverse Link (KRL) algorithm, is quite effective to variety of operating conditions, and is highly adaptive to frequent and unpredictable topology changes due to link changes or failures.