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Majority Consensus and the Local Majority Rule

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Book cover Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2001)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2076))

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Abstract

We study a rather generic communication/coordination/ computation problem: in a finite network of agents, each initially having one of the two possible states, can the majority initial state be computed and agreed upon by means of local computation only? We describe the architecture of networks that are always capable of reaching the consensus on the majority initial state of its agents. In particular, we show that, for any truly local network of agents, there are instances in which the network is not capable of reaching such consensus. Thus, every truly local computation approach that requires reaching consensus is not failure- free.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Duke University, USA

    Nabil H. Mustafa

  2. The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, USA

    Aleksandar Pekeč

Authors
  1. Nabil H. Mustafa
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  2. Aleksandar Pekeč
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departament de Llenguatges i Sistemes Informátics, Univ. Politècnica de Catalunya, C/Jordi Girona Salgado 1-3, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    Fernando Orejas

  2. Computer Technology Institute (CTI), University of Patras, 61 Riga Feraiou street, 26221, Patras, Greece

    Paul G. Spirakis

  3. Institute of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, Padualaan 14, 3584, CH, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Jan van Leeuwen

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Mustafa, N.H., Pekeč, A. (2001). Majority Consensus and the Local Majority Rule. In: Orejas, F., Spirakis, P.G., van Leeuwen, J. (eds) Automata, Languages and Programming. ICALP 2001. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2076. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48224-5_44

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48224-5_44

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42287-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48224-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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