Distributed from The Derivation of Termination Detection Algorithms Garbage Collection Schemes

A b s t r a c t . It is shown that the termination detection problem for distributed computations can be modeled as an instance of the garbage collection problem. Consequently, algorithms for the termination detection problem are obtained by applying trausformations to garbage collection algorithms. The transformation can be applied to collectors of the "mark-and-sweep" type as well as to reference counting garbage collectors. As an example, the scheme is used to transform the weighted reference counting protocol.