Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Knowledge in Distributed Systems

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Algorithms

  • 89 Accesses

  • 1984; Halpern, Moses

  • 1986; Chandy, Misra

Years and Authors of Summarized Original Work

Problem Definition

What is the role of knowledge in distributed computing?

Actions taken by a process in a distributed system can only be based on its local information or local knowledge. Indeed, in reasoning about distributed protocols, people often talk informally about what processes know about the state of the system and about the progress of the computation. Can the informal reasoning about knowledge in distributed and multi-agent systems be given a rigorous mathematical formulation, and what uses can this have?

Key Results

In [4] Halpern and Moses initiated a theory of knowledge in distributed systems. They suggested that states of knowledge ascribed to groups of processes, especially common knowledge, have an important role to play. Knowledge-based analysis of distributed protocols has generalized well-known results and enables the discovery of new ones. These include new efficient solutions...

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

Access this chapter

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 1,599.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 1,999.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover 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

Institutional subscriptions

Recommended Reading

  1. Chandy KM, Misra J (1986) How processes learn. Distrib Comput 1(1):40–52

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  2. Dwork C, Moses Y (1990) Knowledge and common knowledge in a Byzantine environment: crash failures. Inf Comput 88(2):156–186

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Fagin R, Halpern JY, Moses Y, Vardi MY (2003) Reasoning about knowledge. MIT, Cambridge, MA

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  4. Halpern JY, Moses Y (1990) Knowledge and common knowledge in a distributed environment. J ACM 37(3):549–587. A preliminary version appeared in Proceeding of the 3rd ACM symposium on principles of distributed computing, 1984

    Google Scholar 

  5. Halpern JY, Zuck LD (1992) A little knowledge goes a long way: knowledge-based derivations and correctness proofs for a family of protocols. J ACM 39(3):449–478

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Moses Y (2015) Relating knowledge and coordinated action: the knowledge of preconditions principle. In: Proceedings of the 15th TARK conference, Pittsburgh, pp 207–215

    Google Scholar 

  7. Moses Y, Tuttle MR (1988) Programming simultaneous actions using common knowledge. Algorithmica 3:121–169

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Yoram Moses

Authors
  1. Yoram Moses
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yoram Moses .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Ming-Yang Kao

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Cite this entry

Moses, Y. (2016). Knowledge in Distributed Systems. In: Kao, MY. (eds) Encyclopedia of Algorithms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2864-4_606

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation