Huffman trees as a basis for a dynamic mutual exclusion algorithm for distributed systems

A distributed mutual exclusion algorithm based on Huffmann trees is described. A request message is passed from a leaf node all the way to the root, signaling that a node is allowed to enter the critical section. Fault tolerance is achieved by forming the Huffman tree dynamically. It is shown that the approach has broad applications in distributed systems where nodes are often organized as a logical tree for ease of coordination. High fault tolerance is achieved, since a faulty node can be detected by its neighbor and thus be deleted from the tree