STABILITY AND DEADLOCK-AVOIDANCE IN DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS FOR TRAFFIC CONTROL

This paper describes a distributed method for traffic control and addr esses the crucial problem of stability from both a formal and a practi cal perspective, within a continuous-time and continuous-space approxi mation a mathematical analysis first demonstrates the inherent stabili ty of priority-based local derision making, Then, a more realistic mod el takes into account a network's finite connectivity and the time-dis crete nature of events, This paper shows how deadlock-avoidance algori thms can be effectively included in a distributed system, Experimental results obtained by a realistic railway model prove that the inclusio n of deadlock avoidance can provide early detection of critical situat ions, thus making it possible to schedule appropriate decisions or to drive a routing mechanism to enhance traffic flow.