Asynchronous ℓ-exclusion in mobile ad hoc networks

A solution to the ℓ-exclusion problem for mobile ad hoc networks aims to provide access and control over ℓ identical copies of critical resources among mobile nodes. In literature, few token-based solutions to this problem are available. However, these solutions do not consider failures, such as loss or regeneration of tokens, crash or sudden recovery of nodes. This paper presents a consensus-based ℓ-exclusion algorithm that explicitly copes with mobility associated with such networks. The algorithm is fault-resilient in the sense that it can tolerate loss of messages, link failures, sudden crash or recovery of at most ℓ-1 mobile nodes. This paper presents a simulation study considering several performance metrics that can significantly impact the behavior of such an algorithm in different ad hoc settings. This paper also presents a proof of correctness and compares the algorithm with existing ones.