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Primary partition “Virtually-synchronous communication” harder than consensus

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Book cover Distributed Algorithms (WDAG 1994)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 857))

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Abstract

The paper considers the problem of implementing “Virtually Synchronous Communication” in the primary partition of an asynchronous system. Virtually Synchronous Communication was first introduced by the Isis system as a powerful mechanism for building fault-tolerant processes that mask failures by replication: it can be understood as a rule for ordering message deliveries (reliable multicasts) with respect to view changes, defined by a membership service. Primary partition Virtually Synchronous Communication, noted PP-VSC, is the problem of implementing Virtually Synchronous Communication in the case of totally ordered views. The paper formally defines the problem, and shows that surprisingly this problem is harder than consensus: (1) consensus is solvable whenever the PP-VSC problem is solvable, however (2) there are environments where consensus is solvable, but not PP-VSC. The paper also defines an environment in which PP-VSC can be solved. The practical consequences of the result are discussed.

Research supported by the “Fonds national suisse” and OFES under contract number 21-32210.91, as part of the ESPRIT Basic Research Project BROADCAST (number 6360), and by SPP-IP under contract number 5003–34344.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département d'Informatique, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    André Schiper & Alain Sandoz

Authors
  1. André Schiper
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  2. Alain Sandoz
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Gerard Tel Paul Vitányi

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Schiper, A., Sandoz, A. (1994). Primary partition “Virtually-synchronous communication” harder than consensus. In: Tel, G., Vitányi, P. (eds) Distributed Algorithms. WDAG 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 857. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0020423

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0020423

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-58449-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48799-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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