312 research outputs found
Optimal Gossip with Direct Addressing
Gossip algorithms spread information by having nodes repeatedly forward
information to a few random contacts. By their very nature, gossip algorithms
tend to be distributed and fault tolerant. If done right, they can also be fast
and message-efficient. A common model for gossip communication is the random
phone call model, in which in each synchronous round each node can PUSH or PULL
information to or from a random other node. For example, Karp et al. [FOCS
2000] gave algorithms in this model that spread a message to all nodes in
rounds while sending only messages per node
on average.
Recently, Avin and Els\"asser [DISC 2013], studied the random phone call
model with the natural and commonly used assumption of direct addressing.
Direct addressing allows nodes to directly contact nodes whose ID (e.g., IP
address) was learned before. They show that in this setting, one can "break the
barrier" and achieve a gossip algorithm running in
rounds, albeit while using messages per node.
We study the same model and give a simple gossip algorithm which spreads a
message in only rounds. We also prove a matching lower bound which shows that this running time is best possible. In
particular we show that any gossip algorithm takes with high probability at
least rounds to terminate. Lastly, our algorithm can be
tweaked to send only messages per node on average with only
bits per message. Our algorithm therefore simultaneously achieves the optimal
round-, message-, and bit-complexity for this setting. As all prior gossip
algorithms, our algorithm is also robust against failures. In particular, if in
the beginning an oblivious adversary fails any nodes our algorithm still,
with high probability, informs all but surviving nodes
FairLedger: A Fair Blockchain Protocol for Financial Institutions
Financial institutions are currently looking into technologies for
permissioned blockchains. A major effort in this direction is Hyperledger, an
open source project hosted by the Linux Foundation and backed by a consortium
of over a hundred companies. A key component in permissioned blockchain
protocols is a byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) consensus engine that orders
transactions. However, currently available BFT solutions in Hyperledger (as
well as in the literature at large) are inadequate for financial settings; they
are not designed to ensure fairness or to tolerate selfish behavior that arises
when financial institutions strive to maximize their own profit.
We present FairLedger, a permissioned blockchain BFT protocol, which is fair,
designed to deal with rational behavior, and, no less important, easy to
understand and implement. The secret sauce of our protocol is a new
communication abstraction, called detectable all-to-all (DA2A), which allows us
to detect participants (byzantine or rational) that deviate from the protocol,
and punish them. We implement FairLedger in the Hyperledger open source
project, using Iroha framework, one of the biggest projects therein. To
evaluate FairLegder's performance, we also implement it in the PBFT framework
and compare the two protocols. Our results show that in failure-free scenarios
FairLedger achieves better throughput than both Iroha's implementation and PBFT
in wide-area settings
On Byzantine Broadcast in Loosely Connected Networks
We consider the problem of reliably broadcasting information in a multihop
asynchronous network that is subject to Byzantine failures. Most existing
approaches give conditions for perfect reliable broadcast (all correct nodes
deliver the authentic message and nothing else), but they require a highly
connected network. An approach giving only probabilistic guarantees (correct
nodes deliver the authentic message with high probability) was recently
proposed for loosely connected networks, such as grids and tori. Yet, the
proposed solution requires a specific initialization (that includes global
knowledge) of each node, which may be difficult or impossible to guarantee in
self-organizing networks - for instance, a wireless sensor network, especially
if they are prone to Byzantine failures. In this paper, we propose a new
protocol offering guarantees for loosely connected networks that does not
require such global knowledge dependent initialization. In more details, we
give a methodology to determine whether a set of nodes will always deliver the
authentic message, in any execution. Then, we give conditions for perfect
reliable broadcast in a torus network. Finally, we provide experimental
evaluation for our solution, and determine the number of randomly distributed
Byzantine failures than can be tolerated, for a given correct broadcast
probability.Comment: 1
Lessons from HotStuff
This article will take you on a journey to the core of blockchains, their
Byzantine consensus engine, where HotStuff emerged as a new algorithmic
foundation for the classical Byzantine generals consensus problem.
The first part of the article underscores the theoretical advances HotStuff
enabled, including several models in which HotStuff-based solutions closed
problems which were opened for decades.
The second part focuses on HotStuff performance in real life setting, where
its simplicity drove adoption of HotStuff as the golden standard for blockchain
design, and many variants and improvements built on top of it.
Both parts of this document are meant to describe lessons drawn from HotStuff
as well as dispel certain myths
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