The Impact of RDMA on Agreement

Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) is becoming widely available in data centers. This technology allows a process to directly read and write the memory of a remote host, with a mechanism to control access permissions. In this paper, we study the fundamental power of these capabilities. We consider the well-known problem of achieving consensus despite failures, and find that RDMA can improve the inherent trade-off in distributed computing between failure resilience and performance. Specifically, we show that RDMA allows algorithms that simultaneously achieve high resilience and high performance, while traditional algorithms had to choose one or another. With Byzantine failures, we give an algorithm that only requires $n \geq 2f_P + 1$ processes (where $f_P$ is the maximum number of faulty processes) and decides in two (network) delays in common executions. With crash failures, we give an algorithm that only requires $n \geq f_P + 1$ processes and also decides in two delays. Both algorithms tolerate a minority of memory failures inherent to RDMA, and they provide safety in asynchronous systems and liveness with standard additional assumptions.Comment: Full version of PODC'19 paper, strengthened broadcast algorith

Régimes thermiques dans les écoulements plastiques de polymères fondus

Le but de ce travail est la modélisation numérique du régime thermique dans les écoulements plastiques de polymères fondus. À l'aide d'une méthode numérique itérative aux différences finies, on détermine la vitesse axiale et la température pour chaque section et à chaque instant. Les résultats obtenus, dans cette étude, peuvent contribuer à une meilleure élaboration de ce type d'écoulement

Frugal Byzantine Computing

Traditional techniques for handling Byzantine failures are expensive: digital signatures are too costly, while using 3f+1 replicas is uneconomical (f denotes the maximum number of Byzantine processes). We seek algorithms that reduce the number of replicas to 2f+1 and minimize the number of signatures. While the first goal can be achieved in the message-and-memory model, accomplishing the second goal simultaneously is challenging. We first address this challenge for the problem of broadcasting messages reliably. We study two variants of this problem, Consistent Broadcast and Reliable Broadcast, typically considered very close. Perhaps surprisingly, we establish a separation between them in terms of signatures required. In particular, we show that Consistent Broadcast requires at least 1 signature in some execution, while Reliable Broadcast requires O(n) signatures in some execution. We present matching upper bounds for both primitives within constant factors. We then turn to the problem of consensus and argue that this separation matters for solving consensus with Byzantine failures: we present a practical consensus algorithm that uses Consistent Broadcast as its main communication primitive. This algorithm works for n = 2f+1 and avoids signatures in the common case - properties that have not been simultaneously achieved previously. Overall, our work approaches Byzantine computing in a frugal manner and motivates the use of Consistent Broadcast - rather than Reliable Broadcast - as a key primitive for reaching agreement

An architecture for reliable distributed computer-controlled systems

In Distributed Computer-Controlled Systems (DCCS), both real-time and reliability requirements are of major concern. Architectures for DCCS must be designed considering the integration of processing nodes and the underlying communication infrastructure. Such integration must be provided by appropriate software support services. In this paper, an architecture for DCCS is presented, its structure is outlined, and the services provided by the support software are presented. These are considered in order to guarantee the real-time and reliability requirements placed by current and future systems

Safety-Liveness Exclusion in Distributed Computing

The history of distributed computing is full of trade-offs between safety and liveness. For instance, one of the most celebrated results in the field, namely the impossibility of consensus in an asynchronous system basically says that we cannot devise an algorithm that deterministically ensures consensus agreement and validity (i.e., safety) on the one hand, and consensus wait-freedom (i.e., liveness) on the other hand. The motivation of this work is to study the extent to which safety and liveness properties inherently exclude each other. More specifically, we ask, given any safety property S, whether we can determine the strongest (resp. weakest) liveness property that can (resp. cannot) be achieved with S. We show that, maybe surprisingly, the answers to these safety-liveness exclusion questions are in general negative. This has several ramifications in various distributed computing contexts. In the context of consensus for example, this means that it is impossible to determine the strongest (resp. the weakest) liveness property that can (resp. cannot) be ensured with linearizability. However, we present a way to circumvent these impossibilities and answer positively the safety-liveness question by considering a restricted form of liveness. We consider a definition that gathers generalized forms of obstruction-freedom and lock-freedom while enabling to determine the strongest (resp. weakest) liveness property that can (resp. cannot) be implemented in the context of consensus and transactional memory

Modélisation numérique d'écoulements pulses de fluides plastiques en conduites déformables à parois élastiques poreuses et isotropes

L'objet du présent travail consiste à mettre en évidence, dans un écoulement pulsé, certains effets caractéristiques dus au comportement plastique du fluide, au comportement élastique isotrope de la paroi et à sa porosité. À l'aide d'une méthode numérique itérative aux différences finies, la pression et la vitesse de débit dans la conduite ont été déterminées. Cette contribution à la compréhension de certains aspects de l'écoulements sanguin dans les artères peut aussi s'appliquer à des écoulements de type industriel.Numerical modelisation of pulsatile flows of plastic fluids through isotropie porous elastic pipesA numerical study concerning pulsatile flows of plastic fluids through isotropie porous elastic ducts is presented. The objective is to investigate the effects ofporosity, and elasticity ofpipe wall material for a generalized Bingham fluid. An implicit difference method is used to resolve the equations, we determine the pressure and the flow rate distributions. This study can be considered as a step in modelling offlow in blood vessels, may also contribute to other important fields such as water desalination or gel filtration

Modélisation et étude numérique de la pollution de la nappe phréatique

Une méthode numérique pour la simulation dynamique du transfert de masse dans le sol, causant la dégradation de la qualité des eaux souterraines est développée. Pour se faire, la méthode des différences finies est utilisée pour résoudre le problème et prévoir le profil des pressions, des vitesses de filtration, des saturations en eau et de la concentration du soluté.Modelisation and numerical study of groundwater pollutionA numerical method for the dynamic simulation of mass transfert in the ground wich participate in groudwater pollution is developed. To that purpose, the finite difference method is used to solve the solution of a system and in order to know profiles of pressure, filtrate velocity, water saturation and solute concentration

The Computational Structure of Progress Conditions

Abstract. Understanding the effect of different progress conditions on the com-putability of distributed systems is an important and exciting research direction. For a system with n processes, we define exponentially many new progress con-ditions and explore their properties and strength. We cover all the known, sym-metric and asymmetric, progress conditions and many new interesting conditions. Together with our technical results, the new definitions provide a deeper under-standing of synchronization and concurrency