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International Workshop on Distributed Algorithms

WDAG 1992: Distributed Algorithms pp 292–312Cite as

Membership algorithms for multicast communication groups

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 647))

Abstract

We introduce a membership protocol that maintains the set of currently connected machines in an asynchronous and dynamic environment. The protocol handles both failures and joining of machines. It operates within a multicast communication sub-system.

It is well known that solving the membership problem in an asynchronous environment when faults may be present is impossible. In order to circumvent this difficulty, our approach rarely extracts from the membership live (but not active) machines unjustfully. The benefit is that our procotol always terminates within a finite time. In addition, if a machine is inadvertently taken out of the membership, it can rejoin it right away using the membership protocol.

Despite the asynchrony, configuration changes are logically synchronized with all the regular messages in the system, and appear virtually synchronous to the application layer.

The protocol presented here supports partitions and merges. When partitions and merging occur, the protocol provides the application with exact information about the status of the system. It is up to the application designer to merge the partitioned histories correctly.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

    Yair Amir, Danny Dolev, Shlomo Kramer & Dalia Malki

  2. IBM Almaden Research Center, USA

    Danny Dolev

Authors
  1. Yair Amir
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  2. Danny Dolev
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  3. Shlomo Kramer
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  4. Dalia Malki
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Editor information

Adrian Segall Shmuel Zaks

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Amir, Y., Dolev, D., Kramer, S., Malki, D. (1992). Membership algorithms for multicast communication groups. In: Segall, A., Zaks, S. (eds) Distributed Algorithms. WDAG 1992. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 647. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56188-9_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56188-9_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-56188-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47484-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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