Token systems that self-stabilize
Gavin M. Brown, Mohamed G. Gouda, Changshun Wu · IEEE Transactions on Computers · 1989
Presents a novel class of mutual exclusion systems, in which processes circulate one token, and each process enters its critical section when it receives the token. Each system in the class is self-stabilizing; i.e. it it starts at any state, possibly one where many tokens exist in the system, it is guaranteed to converge to a good state where exactly one token exists in the system. The systems are better than previous systems in that their state transitions are noninterfering; i.e., if any state transition is enabled at any instant, then it will continue to be enabled until it is executed. This makes the systems easier to implement as delay-insensitive circuits.>