Global Quiescence Detection Based on Credit Distribution and Recovery 

Information Processing Letters 30, pp. 195-200, 1989 

We present a new, yet very simple principle for global quiescence detection. 
All active processes and all messages of the underlying computation have a 
share of a credit initially distributed by the environment. The sum of all 
credit shares is kept invariant. When the environment has recovered the whole 
credit, it can conclude that no processes are active and no messages are in 
transit. We show how the principle can be implemented efficiently.