850 research outputs found
The Relative Power of Composite Loop Agreement Tasks
Loop agreement is a family of wait-free tasks that includes set agreement and
simplex agreement, and was used to prove the undecidability of wait-free
solvability of distributed tasks by read/write memory. Herlihy and Rajsbaum
defined the algebraic signature of a loop agreement task, which consists of a
group and a distinguished element. They used the algebraic signature to
characterize the relative power of loop agreement tasks. In particular, they
showed that one task implements another exactly when there is a homomorphism
between their respective signatures sending one distinguished element to the
other. In this paper, we extend the previous result by defining the composition
of multiple loop agreement tasks to create a new one with the same combined
power. We generalize the original algebraic characterization of relative power
to compositions of tasks. In this way, we can think of loop agreement tasks in
terms of their basic building blocks. We also investigate a category-theoretic
perspective of loop agreement by defining a category of loops, showing that the
algebraic signature is a functor, and proving that our definition of task
composition is the "correct" one, in a categorical sense.Comment: 18 page
Byzantine Approximate Agreement on Graphs
Consider a distributed system with n processors out of which f can be Byzantine faulty. In the approximate agreement task, each processor i receives an input value x_i and has to decide on an output value y_i such that
1) the output values are in the convex hull of the non-faulty processors\u27 input values,
2) the output values are within distance d of each other.
Classically, the values are assumed to be from an m-dimensional Euclidean space, where m >= 1.
In this work, we study the task in a discrete setting, where input values with some structure expressible as a graph. Namely, the input values are vertices of a finite graph G and the goal is to output vertices that are within distance d of each other in G, but still remain in the graph-induced convex hull of the input values. For d=0, the task reduces to consensus and cannot be solved with a deterministic algorithm in an asynchronous system even with a single crash fault. For any d >= 1, we show that the task is solvable in asynchronous systems when G is chordal and n > (omega+1)f, where omega is the clique number of G. In addition, we give the first Byzantine-tolerant algorithm for a variant of lattice agreement. For synchronous systems, we show tight resilience bounds for the exact variants of these and related tasks over a large class of combinatorial structures
Sciduction: Combining Induction, Deduction, and Structure for Verification and Synthesis
Even with impressive advances in automated formal methods, certain problems
in system verification and synthesis remain challenging. Examples include the
verification of quantitative properties of software involving constraints on
timing and energy consumption, and the automatic synthesis of systems from
specifications. The major challenges include environment modeling,
incompleteness in specifications, and the complexity of underlying decision
problems.
This position paper proposes sciduction, an approach to tackle these
challenges by integrating inductive inference, deductive reasoning, and
structure hypotheses. Deductive reasoning, which leads from general rules or
concepts to conclusions about specific problem instances, includes techniques
such as logical inference and constraint solving. Inductive inference, which
generalizes from specific instances to yield a concept, includes algorithmic
learning from examples. Structure hypotheses are used to define the class of
artifacts, such as invariants or program fragments, generated during
verification or synthesis. Sciduction constrains inductive and deductive
reasoning using structure hypotheses, and actively combines inductive and
deductive reasoning: for instance, deductive techniques generate examples for
learning, and inductive reasoning is used to guide the deductive engines.
We illustrate this approach with three applications: (i) timing analysis of
software; (ii) synthesis of loop-free programs, and (iii) controller synthesis
for hybrid systems. Some future applications are also discussed
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Computing infrastructure issues in distributed communications systems : a survey of operating system transport system architectures
The performance of distributed applications (such as file transfer, remote login, tele-conferencing, full-motion video, and scientific visualization) is influenced by several factors that interact in complex ways. In particular, application performance is significantly affected both by communication infrastructure factors and computing infrastructure factors. Several communication infrastructure factors include channel speed, bit-error rate, and congestion at intermediate switching nodes. Computing infrastructure factors include (among other things) both protocol processing activities (such as connection management, flow control, error detection, and retransmission) and general operating system factors (such as memory latency, CPU speed, interrupt and context switching overhead, process architecture, and message buffering). Due to a several orders of magnitude increase in network channel speed and an increase in application diversity, performance bottlenecks are shifting from the network factors to the transport system factors.This paper defines an abstraction called an "Operating System Transport System Architecture" (OSTSA) that is used to classify the major components and services in the computing infrastructure. End-to-end network protocols such as TCP, TP4, VMTP, XTP, and Delta-t typically run on general-purpose computers, where they utilize various operating system resources such as processors, virtual memory, and network controllers. The OSTSA provides services that integrate these resources to support distributed applications running on local and wide area networks.A taxonomy is presented to evaluate OSTSAs in terms of their support for protocol processing activities. We use this taxonomy to compare and contrast five general-purpose commercial and experimental operating systems including System V UNIX, BSD UNIX, the x-kernel, Choices, and Xinu
Brief announcement : variants of approximate agreement on graphs and simplicial complexes
Approximate agreement is a weaker version of consensus where two or more processes must agree on a real number within a distance ε of each other. Many variants of this task have been considered in the literature: continuous or discrete ones; multi-dimensional ones; as well as agreement on graphs and other spaces. We focus on two variants of approximate agreement on graphs, edge agreement and clique agreement. We show that both tasks arise as special cases of a more general, higher-dimensional, approximate agreement task, where the processes must agree on the vertices of a simplex in a given simplicial complex. This new point of view gives rise to a novel topological perspective on the solvability of clique agreemen
Human operator performance of remotely controlled tasks: Teleoperator research conducted at NASA's George C. Marshal Space Flight Center
The capabilities within the teleoperator laboratories to perform remote and teleoperated investigations for a wide variety of applications are described. Three major teleoperator issues are addressed: the human operator, the remote control and effecting subsystems, and the human/machine system performance results for specific teleoperated tasks
A transient heat transfer and thermodynamic analysis of the Apollo service module propulsion system. Vol. I, phase I - Transient thermal analysis Final report, 28 Jul. 1964 - 28 Jul. 1965
Transient heat transfer and thermodynamic behavior analysis for Apollo service module propulsion system - fuel cell effect on overheatin
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