Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

International Conference On Principles Of Distributed Systems

OPODIS 2006: Principles of Distributed Systems pp 3–19Cite as

In Search of the Holy Grail: Looking for the Weakest Failure Detector for Wait-Free Set Agreement

  • Conference paper

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 4305))

Abstract

Asynchronous failure detector-based set agreement algorithms proposed so far assume that all the processes participate in the algorithm. This means that (at least) the processes that do not crash propose a value and consequently execute the algorithm. It follows that these algorithms can block forever (preventing the correct processes from terminating) when there are correct processes that do not participate in the algorithm. This paper investigates the wait-free set agreement problem, i.e., the case where the correct participating processes have to decide a value whatever the behavior of the other processes (i.e., the processes that crash and the processes that are correct but do not participate in the algorithm). The paper presents a wait-free set agreement algorithm. This algorithm is based on a leader failure detector class that takes into account the notion of participating processes. Interestingly, this algorithm enjoys a first class property, namely, design simplicity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Borowsky, E., Gafni, E.: Generalized FLP Impossibility Results for t-Resilient Asynchronous Computations. In: Proc. 25th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computation (STOC 1993), San Diego (CA), pp. 91–100 (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Chandra, T., Toueg, S.: Unreliable Failure Detectors for Reliable Distributed Systems. Journal of the ACM 43(2), 225–267 (1996)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  3. Chandra, T., Hadzilacos, V., Toueg, S.: The Weakest Failure Detector for Solving Consensus. Journal of the ACM 43(4), 685–722 (1996)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. Chaudhuri, S.: More Choices Allow More Faults: Set Consensus Problems in Totally Asynchronous Systems. Information and Computation 105, 132–158 (1993)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Fischer, M.J., Lynch, N.A., Paterson, M.S.: Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Faulty Process. Journal of the ACM 32(2), 374–382 (1985)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  6. Guerraoui, R., Kapałka, M., Kouznetsov, P.: The Weakest Failure Detectors to Boost Obstruction-Freedom. In: Dolev, S. (ed.) DISC 2006. LNCS, vol. 4167, pp. 399–412. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  7. Guerraoui, R., Raynal, M.: The Information Structure of Indulgent Consensus. IEEE Transactions on Computers 53(4), 453–466 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Guerraoui, R., Raynal, M.: The Alpha of Indulgent Consensus. The Computer Journal (to appear, 2006)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Herlihy, M.P.: Wait-Free Synchronization. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems 13(1), 124–149 (1991)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Herlihy, M.P., Penso, L.D.: Tight Bounds for k-Set Agreement with Limited Scope Accuracy Failure Detectors. Distributed Computing 18(2), 157–166 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Herlihy, M.P., Shavit, N.: The Topological Structure of Asynchronous Computability. Journal of the ACM 46(6), 858–923 (1999)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  12. Lamport, L.: The Part-Time Parliament. ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 16(2), 133–169 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Loui, M.C., Abu-Amara, H.: Memory requirements for agreement among unreliable asynchronous processes. Advances in Computing research 4, 163–183 (1987)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Mostéfaoui, A., Rajsbaum, S., Raynal, M., Travers, C.: Irreducibility and Additivity of Set Agreement-oriented Failure Detector Classes. In: Proc. 25th ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing PODC 2006. ACM Press, Denver (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Mostéfaoui, A., Raynal, M.: k-Set Agreement with Limited Accuracy Failure Detectors. In: Proc. 19th ACM Symposium on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC 2000), pp. 143–152. ACM Press, New York (2000)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Mostéfaoui, A., Raynal, M.: Leader-Based Consensus. Parallel Processing Letters 11(1), 95–107 (2001)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  17. Mostéfaoui, A., Raynal, M., Travers, C.: Exploring gafni’s reduction land: From Ω^k to wait-free adaptive \((2p-\lceil\frac{p}{k}\rceil)\)-renaming via k-set agreement. In: Dolev, S. (ed.) DISC 2006. LNCS, vol. 4167, pp. 1–15. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Neiger, G.: Failure Detectors and the Wait-free Hierarchy. In: Proc. 14th ACM Symp. on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC 1995), pp. 100–109. ACM Press, New York (1995)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Saks, M., Zaharoglou, F.: Wait-Free k-Set Agreement is Impossible: The Topology of Public Knowledge. SIAM Journal on Computing 29(5), 1449–1483 (2000)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  20. Yang, J., Neiger, G., Gafni, E.: Structured Derivations of Consensus Algorithms for Failure Detectors. In: Proc. 17th ACM Symp. on Principles of Distributed Computing (PODC 1998), pp. 297–308. ACM Press, New York (1998)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRISA, Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042, Rennes, France

    Michel Raynal & Corentin Travers

Authors
  1. Michel Raynal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Corentin Travers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT, USA

    Mariam Momenzadeh Alexander A. Shvartsman

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Raynal, M., Travers, C. (2006). In Search of the Holy Grail: Looking for the Weakest Failure Detector for Wait-Free Set Agreement. In: Shvartsman, M.M.A.A. (eds) Principles of Distributed Systems. OPODIS 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4305. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11945529_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11945529_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-49990-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49991-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation