Low contention linearizable counting

Maurice Herlihy*, Nir Shavit, Orli Waarts

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

The linearizable counting problem requires asynchronous concurrent processes to assign themselves successive values so that the order of the values assigned reflects the real-time order in which they were requested. It is shown that the problem can be solved without funneling all processes through a common memory location. Two new constructions for linearizable counting networks, data structures that solve the linearizable counting problem, are given. The first construction is nonblocking: some process takes a value after O(n) network gates have been traversed. The second construction is wait-free: it guarantees that each process takes a value after it traverses O(wn) gates, where w is a parameter affecting contention. It is shown that in any non-blocking or wait-free linearizable counting network, processes must traverse an average of Ω(n) gates, and so the constructions are close to optimal. A simpler and more efficient network is constructed by giving up the robustness requirements and allowing processes to wait for one another.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAnnual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (Proceedings)
PublisherPubl by IEEE
Pages526-535
Number of pages10
ISBN (Print)0818624450
StatePublished - Dec 1991
Externally publishedYes
EventProceedings of the 32nd Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science - San Juan, PR, USA
Duration: 1 Oct 19914 Oct 1991

Publication series

NameAnnual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (Proceedings)
ISSN (Print)0272-5428

Conference

ConferenceProceedings of the 32nd Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science
CitySan Juan, PR, USA
Period1/10/914/10/91

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