PROJECT#$2$:

MULTITHREADED RESTAURANT SIMULATION

Objective:

Develop a multithreaded program that simulates the operations of a restaurant. This simulation will model the interactions between customers, waiters, and cooks, and manage the allocation of tables and food orders. The goal is to create a system that efficiently handles customer requests, ensures smooth operations, and avoids common concurrency issues such as race conditions and deadlocks

Background:

$$ Multithreading: The ability of a program to execute multiple threads concurrently, allowing for the simultaneous processing of multiple tasks. This is crucial for applications that require handling multiple requests or operations at the same time.

$$ Race Conditions: Occur when two or more threads access shared resources simultaneously, leading to unpredictable outcomes. In the context of our restaurant simulation, this could happen when multiple customers attempt to reserve the same table.

$$ deadlocks: A situation where two or more threads are unable to proceed because each is waiting for the other to release a resource. For example, a waiter waiting for a cook to prepare an order, and a cook waiting for a waiter to deliver the order

Project Requirements:

$1.$ Restaurant Environment:

o The simulation should include a main program that initializes the restaurant environment, including tables, waiters, and cooks.

o The restaurant should be able to handle a specified number of customers, tables, waiters, and cooks.

$2.$ Customer Behavior:

o Customers arrive at random intervals.

o Each customer requests a table and orders food once.

o The time it takes for a customer to place an order and eat it should be simulated.

$3.$ Waiter and Cook Operations:

o Waiters take orders from customers and bring food to the tables.

o Cooks prepare the orders.

o The time it takes for waiters to process orders and cooks to prepare food should be simulated.

$4.$ Synchronization and Concurrency Control:

o Implement synchronization mechanisms to prevent race conditions and deadlocks.

o Ensure that customers wait for a table to become available and that waiters and cooks wait for resources to be available before proceeding with their tasks.

$5.$ Output and Monitoring:

o The simulation should periodically display the status of tables, waiters, cooks, and customer queues.

o This information should be updated every $5$ seconds.

Deliverables:

$$ A complete C or Java program that simulates the restaurant operations as described. C offers more control and efficiency, but requires manual memory management and complex error handling. It's suitable for projects where performance is critical. Java provides built$-$in support for object$-$oriented programming, concurrency, and memory management, making it easier to implement complex multithreaded applications. It's ideal for projects where ease of development and code maintainability are priorities. It is up to you to choose C or Java language to implement this project.

$$ A detailed report explaining the design and implementation of the program, including the use of multithreading, synchronization mechanisms, and how they address race conditions and deadlocks.

Evaluation Criteria:

$$ Correctness: The program should accurately simulate the restaurant operations without errors.

$$ Efficiency: The program should efficiently manage resources and handle customer requests.

$$ Synchronization: The program should correctly implement synchronization mechanisms to prevent race conditions and deadlocks.

$$ Documentation: The report should clearly explain the design and implementation of the program.

Note: This project aims to provide a practical understanding of multithreading, concurrency control, and the challenges of managing shared resources in a concurrent environment.

Let's walk through a simplified example of how the restaurant simulation program might work. This example will focus on a small$-$scale scenario to illustrate the interactions between customers, waiters, and cooks, as well as the management of tables and orders.

Scenario Setup

$$ Tables: $3$ tables available.

$$ Waiters: $2$ waiters available.

$$ Cooks: $1$ cook available.

$$ Customers: $2$ customers arrive.

Simulation Steps

$1.$ Customer Arrival:

o Customer $1$ arrives and requests a table.

o Customer $2$ arrives and requests a table.

$2.$ Table Allocation:

o Table $1$ is allocated to Customer $1.$

o Table $2$ is allocated to Customer $2.$

o Table $3$ remains unallocated.

$3.$ Ordering:

o Customer $1$ places an order for a burger.

o Customer $2$ places an order for a salad.

$4.$ Waiter Assignment:

o Waiter $1$ takes the order from Customer $1.$

o Waiter $2$ takes the order from Customer $2.$

$5.$ Cook Assignment:

o Cook $1$ starts preparing the burger for Customer $1.$

o Cook $1$ starts preparing the salad for Customer $2.$

$6.$ Order Preparation and Delivery:

o After $4$ seconds, Cook $1$ finishes preparing the burger and Waiter $1$ delivers it to Table $1.$

o After $4$ seconds, Cook $1$ finishes preparing