1. Chapter 3 The Critical Section Problem

2. Producer - Consumer Problem
Producer Process
Consumer Process
Produce
Put in buffer
Consume
Get from buffer
BUFFER
Buffer is shared (ie., it is a shared variable)

3. Progress in time…..
Producer
Consumer 1 2 c2 p1 p4 p3 p2 4 3 t
Buffer
3 instead of 2! c1
Both processes are started at the same time and consumer uses some old value initially

4. A Race Condition Because of the timing and which process starts first
There is a chance that different executions may end up with different results
That is, because of interleaving, we can not predict what will happen next when processes are executing

5. Why Processes Need to Communicate?
To synchronize their executions
To exchange data and information

6. Critical Sections Critical Section Mutual Exclusion
A section of code in which a process accesses and modifies shared variables
Mutual Exclusion
A method of prevention to ensure that one (or a specified number) of process(es) is/are in a critical section

7. Mutual Exclusion Problem
Program producerconsumer;
Procedure producer;
begin
repeat
produce;
putinbuffer;
until false;
End;
Procedure consumer;
Begin
getfrombuffer; consume;
Begin (* main program *)
cobegin producer; consumer coend
End.
critical section
critical section

8. Critical Section
A critical section in the procedure of a process is the section in which the process refers and changes common variables (which are shared by other processes)
There may be several critical sections operating on the same or different common variables in a process

9. Rules to Form Critical Sections
No two processes may be simultaneously inside their CS -(Rule of Mutual Exclusion)
No assumptions are made about relative process speeds or number of CPUs - (Race Conditions)
No process can remain inside a CS indefiniely (CS must be small in code and it’s execution must take minimal time) - (Rule of Deadlock and Starvation)
A process outside a CS should not block other processes - (Rule of Deadlock and Starvation)
No process should wait forever before entering its CS (When a process leaves a CS, the process manager must activate a waiting process to enter its CS. Processes waiting to enter a CS usually wait in a queue maintained in a FIFO manner or by a priority rule) - (Rule of Starvation)

10. Correctness Specification
Correctness specifications required for a solution are :
Mutual exclusion : Statements from the critical sections of two or more processes must not be interleaved
Freedom from Deadlock : If some processes are trying to enter their critical sections, then one of them must eventually succeed
Freedom from Starvation : If any process tries to enter its critical section, then that process must eventually succeed

11. Synchronization
A synchronization mechanism (synchronization primatives) must be provided to handle the critical section problem
This synchronization mechanism consists of additional statements that are placed before and after a critical section (preprotocol and postprotocol)

12. First Attempt (Critical Section Problem for two processes)
Program mutualexclusion;
Var turn : integer;
Procedure P;
begin
repeat
non-critical section;
repeat (* do nothing *) until turn = 1; (* busy wait while P2 is in CS*)
critical section;
turn := 2;
until false;
End;
Procedure Q;
Begin
repeat (* do nothing *) until turn = 2; (* busy wait while P1 is in CS *)
turn := 1;
Begin (* main program *)
turn := 1; (* we start with P1 *)
cobegin P; Q coend
End.

13. Comments
Do (* nothing *) is implemented by timeslicing (process loops in the while instruction )
Solution satisfies mutual exclusion, since only one process can be in CS
Deadlock is not possible. Both processes can never be stuck at the while statement
Process starvation is possible, if a process spends a lot of time in its non-critical section. Here we assume that the other process is busy waiting to enter the critical section. If processes spend finite times in non-critical sections then there will be no starvation

14. Drawback
The processes are not loosely connected. That is, the right to enter a CS is being explicitly passed from one process to another
Suppose process P is waiting to enter the CS. If something happens to process Q while inside the non-critical section, process P is hopelessly deadlocked after the next pass

15. First Attempt Using Book’s Convention
Await is blocking wait not a busy wait loop

16. Proving Correctness with State Diagrams
In the first attempt, states are triples of the form (pi,qj,turn)
Variables used in the non-critical and critical sections are assumed to be distinct from the variables used in the protocols so that they have no effect at the correctness of the solution. So, they are left out of the states
The mutual exclusion correctness property holds if the set of all accessible states does not contain a state of the form (p3,q3,turn) for some value of turn, because p3 and q3 are the labels of the critical sections

17. State Diagrams How many states can be in a state diagram?
Suppose the algorithm has N processes with ni statements in process i, and M variables where variable j has mj possible values.
The number of possible states is
n1 x ... x nN x m1 x ... x mM
For the first attempt, the number of states is 4x4x2=32 since we have 4 statements per process and turn can be 1 or 2

18. State Diagram of the First Attempt
The initial state is (p1,q1,1)
Lefthand side is P executing, righthand side is Q executing
The incremental construction terminates after 16 of the 32 possible states have been constructed
We do not have states (p3,q3,1) or (p3,q3,2) so mutual exclusion property for correctness holds for the first attempt

19. Abbreviating the State Diagram
Statements executed in the non-critical and critical sections are irrelevant to the correctness of the synchronization algorithm. So, they are eliminated
In fact, you can think of p as
p1: non-critical section; await turn = 1
p2: critical section; turn <- 2
Now we have 4 states to consider

20. Correctness of the First Attempt
Mutual exclusion property holds (see the state diagram)
Is the algorithm deadlock free?
Which means : If some processes are trying to enter their critical sections, then one of them must eventually succeed

21. Is it Deadlock Free?
A process is trying to enter its CS if it is executing p1 or q1
Consider the initial state. Turn is 1, which means p1 passes through and q1 loops on
Next state is the lower right. Here p2 executes CS and eventually sets turn to 2. While it is in the CS, Q is executing q1
Next state is upper left in which Q enters its CS.
Turn value decides which process should enter the CS
Both processes eventually enter their CS in a mutually exclusive manner. Hence, the property of freedom from deadlock is satisfied

22. Is it Starvation Free?
Consider a section of the original state diagram. NCS stands for a non-critical section
The state on the lower left is the one in which p2 is waiting to enter its CS and q1 is in the NCS
If process Q decides to stay in its NCS (or broken down), P can not enter its CS so starve
Hence, freedom from starvation property does not hold for this solution
Second attempt tries to solve it

23. Second Attempt
Each process has its own flag which is true when process is in CS (p3, q3 and p5, q5)
The other process waits until this process leaves the CS (p2, q2)
If a process halts in its NCS then the other proceeds independently.

24. Second Attempt (Abbreviated)

25. State Diagram for Abbreviated Algorithm
The last state (p3,q3, true,true) means that both processes enter CS at the same time
Mutual exclusion property does not hold

26. A Scenario Showing that Mutual Exclusion Does Not Hold

27. Second Attempt (for jBACI)
Program secondattempt;
Var c1, c2 : integer;
Procedure p;
Begin
repeat
while c2 = 0 do;
c1 := 0;
CS;
c1 := 1;
NCS;
until false;
End;
Procedure q;
while c1 = 0 do;
c2 := 0;
c2 := 1;
Begin (* main program *)
c1:= 1; c2:= 1; (* Both processes are not in their CS *)
cobegin p; q coend
End.
loop on while p2 is in CS
process is entering the CS
process leaves the CS
if p2 breaks down here,
p1 can still execute since it has its own flag c1

28. Comments & Correctness
Each process periodically checks the other’s common variable cx. If the other process is not in CS (ie., cx = 1); the other process enters its CS, sets its flag c to 0 to indicate that it will enter its CS
This program may not work correctly if events are as shown in the table
We have no mutual exclusion so deadlock! c1 c2
initially 1
P1 checks c2
P2 checks c1
P1 sets c1
P2 sets c2
P1 enters CS
P2 enters CS
Both processes are in CS

29. Third Attempt This algorithm is a modification of the second attempt
Here, “await” statements become a part of the CS
Algorithm satisfies mutual exclusion (prove it yourself!)

30. Scenario for a Deadlock
Both processes are locked at p3 and q3
The situation is a deadlock case but we may call it a livelock since processes are actively executing statements but nothing useful is done

31. Third Attempt (In jBACI)
Program thirdattempt;
Var c1, c2 : integer;
Procedure p1;
Begin
repeat
c1 := 0;
while c2 = 0 do;
CS;
c1 := 1;
NCS;
until false;
End;
Procedure p2;
c2 := 0;
while c1 = 0 do;
c2 := 1;
Begin (* main program *)
c1:= 1; c2:= 1; (* Both processes are not in their CS *)
cobegin p1; p2, coend
End.
loop on while p2 is in CS
process is entering its CS
process leaves the CS

32. Comments & Correctness
The third solution is a modification of the 2’nd attempt. Here, the variable cx (request to enter CS) is set before checking the other process whether it is in CS or not
The solution is not correct as shown in the events of the table c1 c2
initially 1
P1 sets c1
P2 sets c2
P1 enters CS
P2 enters CS
Both processes are in CS

33. Dekker’s Algorithm

34. Dekker’s Algorithm (in jBACI)
Program Dekker;
Var turn : integer;
wantp, wantq :boolean;
Procedure p;
Begin
repeat
wantp := true;
while wantq do if turn = 2 then begin wantp:= false; repeat until turn = 1; wantp:=true end;
CS;
turn := 2;
wantp:= false;
NCS;
until false;
End;
Procedure q;
wantq2 := true;
while wantp do if turn = 1 then begin wantq:= false; repeat until turn = 2; wantq:=false end;
turn := 1;
wantq := false;
Begin (* main program *)
turn:= 1; wantp:= false; wantq:= false;
cobegin p; q coend
End.

35. Explanation of the Algorithm
Procedure p;
Begin
repeat
wantp := true; (* 1 *)
while wantq do if turn = 2 then begin wantp:= false; repeat until turn = 1; wantp:=true end; (* 2 *)
CS;
turn := 2; (* 3 *)
wantp := false; (* 4 *)
NCS;
until false;
End;
Process makes a request to enter CS
If the other process had made a request to enter CS before and if it is its turn then
Take back the request to enter CS by setting the “want” variable to false”
Wait for the other process to exit CS and change the turn variable
Make a new request to enter CS and then enter CS
Flip the turn variable so that now the other process can enter CS
Set “want” variable to false to indicate that the process is now out of CS

36. Comments
Explicit control of transfer by a turn variable. Hence; turn = 1 means P’s turn, turn = 2 Q’s turn
If a process is blocked, the other process can still go
Dekker’s algorithm is correct (prove it!)
It satisfies the mutual exclusion property
It is free from deadlock and starvation