Questions tagged [distributed-systems]
Questions about the challenges of solving problems with multiple cooperating but separate agents.
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2answers
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What is the difference between Consensus and Leader Election problems?
According to this paper written by Lamport, `selecting a unique leader is equivalent to solving the consensus problem'.
Based on the above quote, my question is: What is the difference between ...
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0answers
9 views
How is consensus impossible under FLP even when no fault exists at that moment?
Could some give an illustration of the following sentence?
In fact, for every purported consensus protocol that guarantees agreement and validity, there is some execution in which there are no ...
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0answers
8 views
What does asynchronous communication in FLP impossibility comprise of?
Conditions:
(i) Is it just async networks, that is, messages might be arbitrarily delayed?
(ii) Does it also require that the processors should be running at different speeds?
(iii) Is the absence ...
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1answer
33 views
How is the literal meaning of “rendezvous” related to its usage in distributed computing?
I am trying to figure out the difference between RPC and Rendezvous. Is it correct that they differ only on their implementation on server side: RPC will involve creating a new process/thread to ...
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1answer
14 views
Optimal scalability of a distributed algorithm
What's the optimal scalability of some algorithm when I implement it in a distributed manner?
Intuitively, it seems to me that any algorithm can scale at most linearly with number of computing nodes....
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1answer
19 views
How does paxos algorithm handle partial failures of accept messages?
I've been reading the basic paxos algorithm from the "Paxos Made Simple" paper. I can't understand how paxos algorithm maintains the safety properties under partial failures of the accept messages, ...
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0answers
12 views
Distributed maximal matching from vertex coloring
How to use a $\Delta +1$ vertex coloring to find a maximal matching in a distributed graph.
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0answers
26 views
How do distributed algorithms for shortest path finding handle negative cycles?
I am searching the web for an answer to this question, but I have only found answers for non-distributed algorithms. I am interested in this for its application to Distance Vector routing.
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0answers
68 views
What is a counterexample for Lamport's distributed mutual exclusion algorithm with non-FIFO message queues?
Lamport's distributed mutual exclusion algorithm (also described here) solves mutual exclusion problem for $N$ processes with $3(N-1)$ messages per request ("take and release lock" cycle).
It ...
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0answers
20 views
Why don't RDBMS use a quorum based solution to do failover
For RDBMS viz. MySql, PostgreSql a common solution for scalability and high availability is to run a primary instance as master that is a read-write instance and one or more read replicas. If the ...
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1answer
29 views
What is a genuine atomic multicast?
What is a genuine atomic multicast? What is the difference between a genuine and non-genuine atomic multicast?
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1answer
52 views
Does the Paxos algorithm use failure detectors?
Does the Paxos algorithm use failure detectors? If not, how can it solve consensus, given the impossibility result?
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1answer
31 views
Is There An Established Way To Send Code Over a Network?
Let's say I have two computers on a network. I want to write code in some language on machine A, send the code in an efficient way over a network, and run the code on machine B. It seems to me that ...
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0answers
51 views
In the FLP Impossibility paper, why did the authors claim that e is applicable to every E in proof of lemma 3?
The paper is available here:
https://groups.csail.mit.edu/tds/papers/Lynch/jacm85.pdf
The 1st paragraph of lemma 3's proof says
In other words,if event e is applicable to config C,and E is any ...
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0answers
40 views
Under which conditions is it possible to scale a distributed log with checksums?
This question is related to Amazon's QLDB, but my question is about the generic architecture of such a software system. The question arises from the fact that Amazon advertises the service as "highly ...
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0answers
60 views
Difference between Lamport timestamps and Vector clocks
Lamport timestamps and vector clocks sound like almost the same thing. Both are used to determine the order of events in a distributed system. What are their key differences?
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0answers
29 views
Proof of impossibility result for distributed consensus
I am reading the classic paper by Fisher, Lynch, Merritt "Easy impossibility proofs for distributed consensus problems", and cannot understand the model they are using. It seems it was already ...
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1answer
26 views
Event-based architecture (in the context of Distributed Systems)
Our course lecture slides divide architectures of distributed systems into:
object based architectures (e.g. typical distributed web application)
resource-centered architectures (e.g. torrents and ...
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0answers
20 views
Start with highest ID in bully algorithm?
I try to implement the bully algorithm for leader election in a distributed system.
The pseudo code says to send an election message to all nodes with a higher ID then the own node and to wait for ...
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0answers
42 views
What's the difference between strong consistency and sequential consistency?
How to Make a Multiprocessor Computer That Correctly Executes Multiprocess Programs
... the result of any execution is the same as if the operations of all
the processors were executed in some ...
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0answers
17 views
Distributed Computing: Persistent Data Structures in Functional Programming versus Wait-Free Data Structures
Persistent (aka immutable) data structures in functional programming sidestep issues of shared memory mutual exclusion, and thus also issues such as data races that arise and which may be difficult to ...
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1answer
33 views
Lamport logical clock: why event occurs in a process with smaller pid is treated earlier?
In lamport's paper1, he define global local timestamp, which is composed of process id and local lamport timestamp.
This timestamp is used to order all the events in a distributed system.
The rule ...
1
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1answer
59 views
Lamport logical clock: what does partial mean in the concept of `Partial ordering`?
In lamport's paper[1], he define two concept The partial ordering and The totally ordering.
What does partial mean in ...
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0answers
24 views
Algorithms / heuristics for a distributed sorting problem
The setting:
There's a cluster of $k$ computers (= node). For simplicity, assume their hardware is identical.
The network topology can be complicated, but let's simplify and assume it's a clique ...
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1answer
44 views
Can a distributed algorithm be serial?
Can a distributed algorithm be serial?
For example if I have 3 distinct agents in a network would an algorithm that looks like this be considered a distributed algorithm?
...
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1answer
29 views
Prominent applications not suited for distributed computing [closed]
In the www I can find a lot of application examples suited for and benefitting a lot from distributed computing.
Question: Are there applications which are not suited for distributed computing? If ...
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1answer
175 views
Vector clock :why Singhal Kshemkalyani differential technique require FIFO for message passing?
Singhal–Kshemkalyani’s differential technique is based on the
observation that between successive message sends to the same process,
only a few entries of the vector clock at the sender process ...
2
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0answers
55 views
Why is a primary node needed in pBFT algorithm for consensus?
Why is primary needed in pBFT algo? Since many issues of viewchange etc. come up because primary may be faulty - is it possible to have a version of pBFT which doesn't have nodes assigned as primary? ...
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1answer
80 views
What are the recents topics of research that combine both systems research and theoretical computer science?
I am an undergraduate majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics.
For my undergraduate research, I would like to work on something that lies in the overlap between systems research and theoretical ...
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0answers
87 views
How is Eventual Consistency (EC) better than Strong Consistency (SC) when N = 3, R=W=2 when SC gives better consistency gurantee in same config?
In dynamo paper, it says that in production most of the users set N = 3, R = 2 and W = 2.
...
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0answers
28 views
Is this Paxos example valid?
In this demonstration of the Paxos algorithm, it seems that prep(4) makes use of $\{p_4, p_5, p_6, p_7\}$ and accept(4, yellow) ...
2
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0answers
70 views
Byzantine generals (n=3, m=1)
Leslie Lamport describes a algorithm to come to consensus for the case for n>3*m, there m is the number of traitors in ...
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0answers
44 views
Strong Uniform Total Order vs Weak Uniform Total Order
The definition for SUTO and WUTO is the following:
Suto
If some process TODelivers some message m before message mʹ, then a process TODelivers mʹonly after it has TODelivered m.
And for WUTO
...
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0answers
64 views
What are the purposes of Reply messages in Lamport Algorithm for Mutual Exclusion?
After reading Lamport Algorithm for Mutual Exclusion, I can not understand the purposes of reply messages. I think they are not necessary because the assumption of the algorithms is that all messages ...
3
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1answer
106 views
Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Faulty Process
I'm reading Fischer et al.'s Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Faulty Process, and I don't quite follow 2 points:
The first is in the proof of Lemma 3, pg. 378:
Otherwise, $e$ was ...
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1answer
25 views
Bloom Filter which does not fit in RAM [closed]
Is it possible to efficiently create a bloom filter with 10^12 buckets on a single machine with 32GB of RAM and a hard drive. We can assume that the keys are already on the disk and are small in size?
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0answers
29 views
BFT algorithm perfo
Understand that BFT algorithms are always prepared for the worst possible circumstances and pays a price for this in terms of speed.
Can one reasonably make the statement / assessment that non BFT ...
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1answer
84 views
How to compare distributed systems and big data
Are there scientific papers that compare distributed systems and big data processing systems?
Big data processing systems can be batch processing systems or streaming big data processing systems.
A ...
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0answers
19 views
Three Phase Commit (3PC): Can a cohort commit because of missed abort during second phase
As a reference, I am reading this:
http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs5204/fall00/distributedDBMS/sreenu/3pc.html
Here is the scenario:
All cohorts have received the prepare message and they acknowledged
...
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0answers
17 views
Byzantine Fault Tolerant - What happens when the threshold of malicious/arbitrary fault is reached?
I understand that through the use of Proof of Work (PoW), Sybil attacks are deterred in public blockchains. The longest chain prevails. Malicious attackers are deterred.
For consortium and/or private ...
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0answers
28 views
Tendermint Consensus - Resilient up to 1/3 of Byzantine participants
Tendermint Consensus is resilient for up to 1/3 of Byzantine participants.
Question: What actually happens after when the network hits the threshold of byzantine actors? Forking happens? Does ...
2
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1answer
64 views
Async Distributed Algorithm Time Complexity
In theory of distributed systems, I understand message complexity and time complexity are common performance measures, with the first being the number of messages sent in the overall execution of the ...
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0answers
10 views
Concurrent server with preallocated Threads
Can we implement a mechanism described below with mutex and a condition variable? If yes, then what r the structures, code of the master and slave threads used in it?
Mechanism -" Consider a ...
3
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0answers
162 views
Even distribution algorithm
Right now I am working on a distributed system that sends messages from single source to many nodes. It is necessary that certain messages are sent to the same node to ensure order of processing. ...
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0answers
27 views
Number of replicas needed for fault tolerance in state machine replication
I am trying to get my head around "State Machine Replication". I understand that it is a way to ensure resilience against failures. I have read that in order to provide fault tolerance against normal ...
2
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0answers
70 views
Are Synchronous Message Order and Total Message Order separate concepts?
I am currently studying this book on distributed systems. In the chapter on message ordering the authors appear to use the term total message ordering and synchronous message ordering interchangeably. ...
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0answers
70 views
a problem with Suzuki-Kasami mutex algorithm
I have some sort of a misunderstanding regarding the Suzuki-Kasami distributed mutex algorithm. I am writing my question here because I failed on gaining access to the original paper.
I will call ...
0
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1answer
58 views
Chord protocol - How should I go about mapping nodes to placeholders on the ring?
In the real world, how is a node mapped to the position on the ring,
Each nodes's IP address is hashed using SHA-1 hashing algorithm which will produce this hash - 73.128.154.69 hashed into ...
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0answers
105 views
bakery algorithm, switching up the condition
I'm currently studying the Bakery Algorithm. I understand it for what it is but now I want to switch it up a bit.
If we changed the < in the 2nd ...
2
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1answer
34 views
Soft question: program result verification
Let's say there's a cloud computing service that allows people to run arbitrary programs and get the results. The idea being that your machine is too slow, and you don't want to overwhelm it. If your ...
