Abstract
This paper investigates whether the assumption of unique identifiers is essential for wait-free distributed computing using shared objects of various types. Algorithms where all processes are programmed identically and do not use unique identifiers are called anonymous. We study the anonymous solvability of two key problems, consensus and naming. These problems are used to define measures of a type T’s power to solve problems anonymously. These measures provide a significant amount of information about whether anonymous implementations of one type from another are possible. We compare these measures with one another and with the consensus numbers defined by Herlihy [13].
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aguilera, M.K.: A pleasant stroll through the land of infinitely many creatures. ACM SIGACT News. 35(2), 36–59 (2004)
Aspnes, J., Fich, F., Ruppert, E.: Relationships between broadcast and shared memory in reliable anonymous distributed systems. Distributed Computing 18(3), 209–219 (2006)
Attiya, H., Gorbach, A., Moran, S.: Computing in totally anonymous asynchronous shared memory systems. Info. and Comp. 173(2), 162–183 (2002)
Bazzi, R.A., Neiger, G., Peterson, G.L.: On the use of registers in achieving wait-free consensus. In: Proc. 13th ACM Symp. on Principles of Distributed Computing, pp. 354–362. ACM Press, New York (1994)
Borowsky, E., Gafni, E., Afek, Y.: Consensus power makes (some) sense! In: Proc. 13th ACM Symp. on Principles of Distributed Computing, pp. 363–372. ACM Press, New York (1994)
Brit, H., Moran, S.: Wait-freedom vs. bounded wait-freedom in public data structures. Journal of Universal Computer Science 2(1), 2–19 (1996)
Buhrman, H., Panconesi, A., Silvestri, R., Vitanyi, P.: On the importance of having an identity or, is consensus really universal? Distributed Computing 18(3), 167–176 (2006)
Chor, B., Israeli, A., Li, M.: On processor coordination using asynchronous hardware. In: Proc. 6th ACM Symp. on Princ. of Dist. Comp., pp. 86–97. ACM Press, New York (1987)
Eğecioğlu, O., Singh, A.K.: Naming symmetric processes using shared variables. Distributed Computing 8(1), 19–38 (1994)
Fich, F., Ruppert, E.: Hundreds of impossibility results for distributed computing. Distributed Computing 16(2-3), 121–163 (2003)
Fischer, M.J., Lynch, N.A., Paterson, M.S.: Impossibility of distributed consensus with one faulty process. J. ACM 32(2), 374–382 (1985)
Guerraoui, R., Ruppert, E.: Anonymous and fault-tolerant shared-memory computing. Distributed Computing. To appear
Herlihy, M.: Wait-free synchronization. ACM Trans. Prog. Lang. Syst. 13(1), 124–149 (1991)
Herlihy, M., Shavit, N.: The topological structure of asynchronous computability. J. ACM 46(6), 858–923 (1999)
Jayanti, P.: On the robustness of Herlihy’s hierarchy. In: Proc. 12th ACM Symp. on Principles of Distributed Computing, pp. 145–157. ACM Press, New York (1993)
Johnson, R.E., Schneider, F.B.: Symmetry and similarity in distributed systems. In: Proc. 4th ACM Symp. on Princ. of Distributed Comp. pp. 13–22. ACM Press, New York (1985)
König, D.: Über eine Schlussweise aus dem Endlichen ins Unendliche. Acta. Litterarum ac Scientiarum Regiae Universitatis Hungaricae Francisco-Josephinae: Sectio Scientiarum Mathematicarum 3, 121–130 (1927)
Kutten, S., Ostrovsky, R., Patt-Shamir, B.: The Las-Vegas processor identity problem (How and when to be unique). J. Algorithms 37(2), 468–494 (2000)
Lipton, R.J., Park, A.: The processor identity problem. Process. Lett. 36(2), 91–94 (1990)
Loui, M.C., Abu-Amara, H.H.: Memory requirements for agreement among unreliable asynchronous processes. In: Preparata, F.P. (ed.) Advances in Computing Research, vol. 4, pp. 163–183. JAI Press, Greenwich, Connecticut (1987)
Mavronicolas, M., Michael, L., Spirakis, P.: Computing on a partially eponymous ring. In: Proc. 10th Intl Conf. on Princ. of Distributed Systems, pp. 380–394 (2006)
Merritt, M., Taubenfeld, G.: Computing with infinitely many processes under assumptions on concurrency and participation. In: Distributed Computing, 14th International Conference, pp. 164–178 (2000)
Moir, M., Anderson, J.H.: Wait-free algorithms for fast, long-lived renaming. Science of Computer Programming 25(1), 1–39 (1995)
Panconesi, A., Papatriantafilou, M., Tsigas, P., Vitányi, P.: Randomized naming using wait-free shared variables. Distributed Computing 11(3), 113–124 (1998)
Ruppert, E.: The anonymous consensus hierarchy and naming problems. In: Technical Report CSE-2006-11. Dept of Comp. Sci. and Engineering, York University (2006)
Teng, S.-H.: Space efficient processor identity protocol. Inf. Process. Lett. 34(3), 147–154 (1990)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Ruppert, E. (2007). The Anonymous Consensus Hierarchy and Naming Problems. In: Tovar, E., Tsigas, P., Fouchal, H. (eds) Principles of Distributed Systems. OPODIS 2007. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4878. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77096-1_28
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77096-1_28
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-77095-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-77096-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)