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Reaching agreement on processor-group membrship in synchronous distributed systems

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Abstract

Reaching agreement on the identity of correctly functioning processors of a distributed system in the presence of random communication delays, failures and processor joins is a fundamental problem in fault-tolerant distributed systems. Assuming a synchronous communication network that is not subject to partition occurrences, we specify the processor-group membership problem and we propose three simple protocols for solving it. The protocols provide all correct processors with consistent views of the processor-group membership and guarantee bounded processor failure detection and join delays.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM Research Division, Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Road, 95120-6099, San Jose, Ca, USA

    Flaviu Cristian

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  1. Flaviu Cristian
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Flaviu Cristian is a computer scientist at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. He received his PhD from the University of Grenoble, France, in 1979. After carrying out research in operating systems and programming methodology in France and working on the specification, design, and verification of fault-tolerant software in England, he joined IBM in 1982. Since then he has worked in the area of fault-tolerant distributed systems and protocols. He has participated in the design and implementation of a highly available distributed system prototype at the Almaden Research Center, has reviewed and consulted for several fault-tolerant distributed system designs, both in Europe and the American divisions of IBM, and is now a technical leader in the design of a new Air Traffic Control System for the US which must satisfy very stringent availability requirements.

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Cristian, F. Reaching agreement on processor-group membrship in synchronous distributed systems. Distrib Comput 4, 175–187 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01784719

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01784719

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