Abstract
We show that the problem of predicate detection in distributed systems is NP-complete. We introduce a class of predicates, linear predicates, such that for any linear predicate B there exists an efficient detection of the least cut satisfying B. The dual of linearity is postlinearity. These properties generalize several known properties of distributed systems, such as the set of consistent cuts forms a lattice, and the WCP and GCP predicate detection results given in earlier work. We define a more general class of predicates, semilinear predicates, for which efficient algorithms are known to detect whether a predicate has occurred during an execution of a distributed program. However, these methods may not identify the least such cut. Any stable predicate is an example of a semi-linear predicate. In addition, we show that certain unstable predicates can also be semi-linear, such as mutual exclusion violation.
Finally, we show application of max-flow to the predicate detection problem. This result solves a previously open problem in predicate detection, establishing the existence of an efficient algorithm to detect predicates of the form x1+x2...+ xn<k where xi are variables on different processes, k is some constant, and n is larger than 2.
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This work has been supported in part by the Texas Instruments/Jack Kilby Faculty Fellowship, by NSF grants CCR-9409736 and CCR-9110605, by a TRW faculty assistantship award, a General Motors Faculty Fellowship, and an IBM grant
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Chase, C.M., Garg, V.K. (1995). Efficient detection of restricted classes of global predicates. 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/BFb0022155
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0022155
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