Survey of Distributed Decision

We survey the recent distributed computing literature on checking whether a given distributed system configuration satisfies a given boolean predicate, i.e., whether the configuration is legal or illegal w.r.t. that predicate. We consider classical distributed computing environments, including mostly synchronous fault-free network computing (LOCAL and CONGEST models), but also asynchronous crash-prone shared-memory computing (WAIT-FREE model), and mobile computing (FSYNC model)

On Mobile Agent Verifiable Problems

International audienceWe consider decision problems that are solved in a distributed fashion by synchronous mobile agents operating in an unknown, anonymous network. Each agent has a unique identifier and an input string and they have to decide collectively a property which may involve their input strings, the graph on which they are operating, and their particular starting positions. Building on recent work by Fraigniaud and Pelc [LATIN 2012, LNCS 7256, pp. 362-374], we introduce several natural new computability classes allowing for a finer classification of problems below $\mathsf{co\text{-}MAV}$ or $\mathsf{MAV}$, the latter being the class of problems that are verifiable when the agents are provided with an appropriate certificate. We provide inclusion and separation results among all these classes. We also determine their closure properties with respect to set-theoretic operations. Our main technical tool, which is of independent interest, is a new meta-protocol that enables the execution of a possibly infinite number of mobile agent protocols essentially in parallel, similarly to the well-known dovetailing technique from classical computability theory

On mobile agent verifiable problems

International audienceWe consider decision problems that are solved in a distributed fashion by synchronous mobile agents operating in an unknown, anonymous network. Each agent has a unique identifier and an input string and they have to decide collectively a property which may involve their input strings, the graph on which they are operating, and their particular starting positions. Building on recent work by Fraigniaud and Pelc [J. Parallel Distrib. Comput, vol. 109, pp. 117–128], we introduce several natural new computability classes allowing for a finer classification of problems below MAV or its complement class co-MAV, the former being the class of problems that are verifiable when the agents are provided with an appropriate certificate. We provide inclusion and separation results among all these classes. We also determine their closure properties with respect to set-theoretic operations. Our main technical tool, which is of independent interest, is a new meta-protocol that enables the execution of a possibly infinite number of mobile agent protocols essentially in parallel, similarly to the well-known dovetailing technique from classical computability theory