Call For Papers

A Special Issue on Deadlock Resolution in Computer Integrated Systems

IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics: Part A. Systems and Humans

http://web.njit.edu/~zhou/tsmc-sp.htm

 

 

Deadlocks constitute an important issue in the design and operation of various computer-integrated systems. These systems rang from automated production and transportation systems, to computer operating systems, concurrent software, computer networks and distributed database systems.  Many of these systems include human in a loop. A deadlock arises when two or more processes in the system, each holding some resources, request the resources occupied by one another such that a circular wait is formed.  In the presence of deadlocks, the system loses its partial or total operational functionality and may increase its operational cost.  Therefore, it is highly desirable to control the system such that deadlocks are avoided and resolved. In general, deadlock resolution is a very difficult problem.  A brute-force deadlock resolution technique has tremendous complexity that even makes an off-line implementation impractical.  As a result, for the past decades many researchers have been investigating more efficient solutions to the problem.  Efficient and successful deadlock resolution leads to the following advantages: 1) Cost reduction: as mentioned above, a deadlock can cripple the system and increase its operational cost, including the labor cost to re-initialize the system and the cost due to the lost of unfinished tasks.  Thus, a system with proper deadlock resolution control can reduce the operational cost. For some critical applications, e.g., networking, distributed database, and concurrent software systems, it is highly desired and even essential that deadlock is completely avoided; and 2) Automated operation: when a deadlock occurs in a system, the easiest way to recover the normal operation is to manually re-start the system by operators.  This makes automation impossible.  In other words, it may be necessary for an automated system to include some form of deadlock prevention and resolution. This special issue aims at presenting the state-of-art research results in deadlock resolution techniques for computer-integrated systems. These techniques are based on formal methodologies such as Petri nets, digraphs, and automata or on machine intelligence/human-in-loop. Theoretical, practical, benchmark, or industrial case study-based papers are sought for this issue. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

l            Formal modeling methods for deadlock identification

l            Deadlock identification and analysis algorithms

l            Deadlock prevention techniques

l            Deadlock avoidance techniques

l            Deadlock detection and recovery approaches

l            Deadlock-free scheduling techniques

l            AI-based approaches to deadlock resolution

l            Human’s role in the design and operation of deadlock-prone systems

l            Applications to various computer-integrated systems

l            Industrial cases studies and benchmark studies.

 

Important dates:

Deadline for paper submission (e-version only): September 1, 2002

Completion of First Review: January 1, 2003

Deadline for the revised papers: April 1, 2003

Completion of Second Review: June 1, 2003

Final paper due to the publisher: August 1, 2003

Publication: November 2003.

 

Please send your e-version (pdf, ps, or Word) manuscripts to one of the following Guest Editors:

Professor MengChu Zhou

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ 07102, USA

Tel. (973) 596-6282 Fax. (973) 596-5680

Email address: zhou@njit.edu

Website: http://web.njit.edu/~zhou

 

Professor MuDer Jeng Department of Electrical Engineering

National Taiwan Ocean University

Keelung 202, TAIWAN, ROC

Tel: 886-2-24622192 ext. 6210  Fax: 886-2-24627054

Email: jeng@mail.ntou.edu.tw

 

Professor Maria Pia Fanti

Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica ed Elettronica

Politecnico di Bari

Via Re David 200 - 70125 , Bari (Italy)

Tel: +39-080-5963643  Fax. +39-080-5963410

E-mail: fanti@poliba.it