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Dissecting distributed coordination

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Distributed Algorithms (WDAG 1995)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 972))

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Abstract

This paper derives necessary and sufficient communication for distributed applications that perform certain actions uniformly in asynchronous systems. We show there is an essential structure of information flow in any solution to Uniform Coordination, suggesting message-minimal solutions. We show it is necessary for processes to conspire against each other to make progress, and we show this conspiracy requires processes to stop communicating with each other. This, we show, renders Uniform Coordination insensitive to channel delivery guarantees. We introduce the notion of exempting processes from coordinating. We show that ‘primary partition’ behavior (Isis) arises from the desire to make exempt an process indistinguishable from a crashed process. Defining weaker exemptions for distributed coordination problems gives rise to many problems solvable in asynchronous systems as well as in systems that partition.

This research is supported by the NSF under grant number ASC-9318151, and a University Research Institute Summer Research Award from the Univerisity of Texas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Texas at Austin, 78712, Austin, TX, USA

    Aleta Ricciardi

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  1. Aleta Ricciardi
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Jean-Michel Hélary Michel Raynal

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© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ricciardi, A. (1995). Dissecting distributed coordination. In: Hélary, JM., Raynal, M. (eds) Distributed Algorithms. WDAG 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 972. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0022141

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0022141

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-60274-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-44783-2

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