Deadlock is among the most complex problems affecting the reliability of programs containing multiple, asynchronous threads. When undetected, deadlocks can lead to permanent thread blockage. Current detection methods are typically based on timeout and rollback of computations, resulting in significant delays. This paper presents Deadlock Detector and Solver (DDS), which can quickly detect and resolve circular deadlocks in Java programs. DDS uses a supervisory controller, which monitors program execution and automatically detects deadlocks resulting from hold-and-wait cycles on monitor locks. When a deadlock is detected, DDS uses a preemptive strategy to break the deadlock. Based on our experiments, DDS can in fact resolve deadlocks without significant run-time overhead.

I’m a PhD candidate in the Computer Science Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, advised by Ugo Buy. My research interests include high performance computing, automatic parallelization, cloud computing, concurrent and parallel software, and deadlock detection. Currently, my focuses on developing an approaches that free Java application from deadlocks at runtime.