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Group Communication Systems

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Guide to Reliable Distributed Systems

Part of the book series: Texts in Computer Science ((TCS))

Abstract

Our goal in Chap. 12 is to identify the best options for implementing high-speed data replication and other tools needed for fault-tolerant, highly assured Web Services and other forms of distributed computing. Given the GMS created in Chap. 11, one option would be to plunge right in and build replicated applications using the protocol directly in the application. The approach builds on the GMS, but then uses it to create protocols that can only be operated under the assumption that if a failure occurs, the GMS will be notified and will reconfigure the system appropriately, notifying the new system configuration members of their new state, and taking steps to shut down any old members that are unreachable but later recover. We arrive at a rich collection of protocols and establish a subtle linkage to the Paxos framework.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Most ordered of all is the flush protocol used to install new views: This delivers a type of message (the new view) in a way that is ordered with respect to all other types of message. In the Isis Toolkit, there was actually a SafeSend primitive, which could be used to obtain this behavior at the request of the user, but it was rarely used and more recent systems tend to use this protocol only to install new process group views.

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  1. Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Kenneth P. Birman

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Birman, K.P. (2012). Group Communication Systems. In: Guide to Reliable Distributed Systems. Texts in Computer Science. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2416-0_12

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