Stabilizing data-link over non-FIFO channels with optimal fault-resilience

Self-stabilizing systems have the ability to converge to a correct behavior when started in any configuration. Most of the work done so far in the self-stabilization area assumed either communication via shared memory or via FIFO channels. This paper is the first to lay the bases for the design of self-stabilizing message passing algorithms over unreliable non-FIFO channels. We propose a fault-send-deliver optimal stabilizing data-link layer that emulates a reliable FIFO communication channel over unreliable capacity bounded non-FIFO channels

Stabilizing Byzantine-Fault Tolerant Storage

Distributed storage service is one of the main abstractions provided to developers of distributed applications due to its ability to hide the complexity generated by the various messages exchanged between processes. Many protocols have been proposed to build Byzantine-fault-tolerant (BFT) storage services on top of a message-passing system but none of them considers the possibility that well-behaving processes (i.e. correct processes) may experience transient failures due to, say, isolated errors during computation or bit alteration during message transfer. This paper proposes a stabilizing Byzantine-tolerant algorithm for emulating a multi-writer multi-reader regular register abstraction on top of a message passing system with n > 5f servers, which we prove to be the minimal possible number of servers for stabilizing and tolerating f Byzantine servers. That is, each read operation returns the value written by the most recent write and write operations are totally ordered with respect to the happened before relation. Our algorithm is particularly appealing for cloud computing architectures where both processors and memory contents (including stale messages in transit) are prone to errors, faults and malicious behaviors. The proposed implementation extends previous BFT implementations in two ways. First, the algorithm works even when the local memory of processors and the content of the communication channels are initially corrupted in an arbitrary manner. Second, unlike previous solutions, our algorithm uses bounded logical timestamps, a feature difficult to achieve in the presence of transient errors

Communication Optimalement Stabilisante sur Canaux non Fiables et non FIFO

A self-stabilizing protocol has the capacity to recover a legitimate behavior whatever is its initial state. The majority of works in self-stabilization assume a shared memory model or a communication using reliable and FIFO channels. In this article, we interest in self-stabilizing systems using bounded but non reliable and non FIFO channels. We propose a stabilizing communication protocol with optimal fault resilience. In more details, this protocol simulates a reliable and FIFO channel and ensures a minimal number of looses, duplications, creations, and re-ordering of messages

Stabilizing Server-Based Storage in Byzantine Asynchronous Message-Passing Systems

A stabilizing Byzantine single-writer single-reader (SWSR) regular register, which stabilizes after the first invoked write operation, is first presented. Then, new/old ordering inversions are eliminated by the use of a (bounded) sequence number for writes, obtaining a practically stabilizing SWSR atomic register. A practically stabilizing Byzantine single-writer multi-reader (SWMR) atomic register is then obtained by using several copies of SWSR atomic registers. Finally, bounded time-stamps, with a time-stamp per writer, together with SWMR atomic registers, are used to construct a practically stabilizing Byzantine multi-writer multi-reader (MWMR) atomic register. In a system of $n$ servers implementing an atomic register, and in addition to transient failures, the constructions tolerate t<n/8 Byzantine servers if communication is asynchronous, and t<n/3 Byzantine servers if it is synchronous. The noteworthy feature of the proposed algorithms is that (to our knowledge) these are the first that build an atomic read/write storage on top of asynchronous servers prone to transient failures, and where up to t of them can be Byzantine

Self-Stabilizing and Private Distributed Shared Atomic Memory in Seldomly Fair Message Passing Networks

We study the problem of privately emulating shared memory in message-passing networks. The system includes clients that store and retrieve replicated information on N servers, out of which e are data-corrupting malicious. When a client accesses a data-corrupting malicious server, the data field of that server response might be different from the value it originally stored. However, all other control variables in the server reply and protocol actions are according to the server algorithm. For the coded atomic storage algorithms by Cadambe et al., we present an enhancement that ensures no information leakage and data-corrupting malicious fault-tolerance. We also consider recovery after the occurrence of transient faults that violate the assumptions according to which the system was designed to operate. After their last occurrence, transient faults leave the system in an arbitrary state (while the program code stays intact). We present a self-stabilizing algorithm, which recovers after the occurrence of transient faults. This addition to Cadambe et al. considers asynchronous settings as long as no transient faults occur. The recovery from transient faults that bring the system counters (close) to their maximal values may include the use of a global reset procedure, which requires the system run to be controlled by a fair scheduler. After the recovery period, the safety properties are provided for asynchronous system runs that are not necessarily controlled by fair schedulers. Since the recovery period is bounded and the occurrence of transient faults is extremely rare, we call this design criteria self-stabilization in the presence of seldom fairness. Our self-stabilizing algorithm uses a bounded amount of storage during asynchronous executions (that are not necessarily controlled by fair schedulers). To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to address privacy, data-corrupting malicious behavior, and self-stabilization in the context of emulating atomic shared memory in message-passing systems