Analysis of the Suzuki-Kasami algorithm with the Maude model checker

We report on a case study in which the Maude model checker has been used to analyze the Suzuki-Kasami distributed mutual exclusion algorithm with respect to the mutual exclusion property and the lockout freedom property. Maude is a specification and programming language/system based on membership equational logic and rewriting logic, equipped with model checking facilities. Maude allows users to use abstract data types, including inductively defined ones, in specifications to be model checked, which is one of the advantages of the Maude model checker. Hence, queues, which are used in the case study, do not have to be encoded in more basic data types. In the case study, the Maude model checker has found a counterexample that the algorithm is lockout free, which has led to one possible modification that makes the algorithm lockout free.