8,663 research outputs found
On the Optimal Space Complexity of Consensus for Anonymous Processes
The optimal space complexity of consensus in shared memory is a decades-old
open problem. For a system of processes, no algorithm is known that uses a
sublinear number of registers. However, the best known lower bound due to Fich,
Herlihy, and Shavit requires registers.
The special symmetric case of the problem where processes are anonymous (run
the same algorithm) has also attracted attention. Even in this case, the best
lower and upper bounds are still and . Moreover, Fich,
Herlihy, and Shavit first proved their lower bound for anonymous processes, and
then extended it to the general case. As such, resolving the anonymous case
might be a significant step towards understanding and solving the general
problem.
In this work, we show that in a system of anonymous processes, any consensus
algorithm satisfying nondeterministic solo termination has to use
read-write registers in some execution. This implies an lower bound
on the space complexity of deterministic obstruction-free and randomized
wait-free consensus, matching the upper bound and closing the symmetric case of
the open problem
Reaching Approximate Byzantine Consensus with Multi-hop Communication
We address the problem of reaching consensus in the presence of Byzantine
faults. In particular, we are interested in investigating the impact of
messages relay on the network connectivity for a correct iterative approximate
Byzantine consensus algorithm to exist. The network is modeled by a simple
directed graph. We assume a node can send messages to another node that is up
to hops away via forwarding by the intermediate nodes on the routes, where
is a natural number. We characterize the necessary and
sufficient topological conditions on the network structure. The tight
conditions we found are consistent with the tight conditions identified for
, where only local communication is allowed, and are strictly weaker for
. Let denote the length of a longest path in the given network. For
and undirected graphs, our conditions hold if and only if and the node-connectivity of the given graph is at least , where
is the total number of nodes and is the maximal number of Byzantine
nodes; and for and directed graphs, our conditions is equivalent to
the tight condition found for exact Byzantine consensus.
Our sufficiency is shown by constructing a correct algorithm, wherein the
trim function is constructed based on investigating a newly introduced minimal
messages cover property. The trim function proposed also works over
multi-graphs.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1203.188
Digital Availability of Product Information for Collaborative Engineering of Spacecraft
In this paper, we introduce a system to collect product information from
manufacturers and make it available in tools that are used for concurrent
design of spacecraft. The planning of a spacecraft needs experts from different
disciplines, like propulsion, power, and thermal. Since these different
disciplines rely on each other there is a high need for communication between
them, which is often realized by a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)
process and corresponding tools. We show by comparison that the product
information provided by manufacturers often does not match the information
needed by MBSE tools on a syntactic or semantic level. The information from
manufacturers is also currently not available in machine-readable formats.
Afterwards, we present a prototype of a system that makes product information
from manufacturers directly available in MBSE tools, in a machine-readable way.Comment: accepted at CDVE201
Distributed Computing in the Asynchronous LOCAL model
The LOCAL model is among the main models for studying locality in the
framework of distributed network computing. This model is however subject to
pertinent criticisms, including the facts that all nodes wake up
simultaneously, perform in lock steps, and are failure-free. We show that
relaxing these hypotheses to some extent does not hurt local computing. In
particular, we show that, for any construction task associated to a locally
checkable labeling (LCL), if is solvable in rounds in the LOCAL model,
then remains solvable in rounds in the asynchronous LOCAL model.
This improves the result by Casta\~neda et al. [SSS 2016], which was restricted
to 3-coloring the rings. More generally, the main contribution of this paper is
to show that, perhaps surprisingly, asynchrony and failures in the computations
do not restrict the power of the LOCAL model, as long as the communications
remain synchronous and failure-free
Coral microatoll reconstructions of El Niño-southern oscillation: new windows on seasonal and interannual processes
Porites corals are the most commonly
used genus for reconstructing El Niño-
Southern Oscillation (ENSO). This hermatypic
coral is found in all tropical reef environments(Veron 2000) with a variety of
growth forms. Climate reconstructions of a
century or more have been obtained from
the most common, dome-shaped Porites
growth form, whereby the colonies, beginning
from the substrate, grow outward and upward towards the ocean surface(Knutson et al. 1972). Domed structures, however, are not the only Porites growth form. © 2013, Authors
Covering Problems for Partial Words and for Indeterminate Strings
We consider the problem of computing a shortest solid cover of an
indeterminate string. An indeterminate string may contain non-solid symbols,
each of which specifies a subset of the alphabet that could be present at the
corresponding position. We also consider covering partial words, which are a
special case of indeterminate strings where each non-solid symbol is a don't
care symbol. We prove that indeterminate string covering problem and partial
word covering problem are NP-complete for binary alphabet and show that both
problems are fixed-parameter tractable with respect to , the number of
non-solid symbols. For the indeterminate string covering problem we obtain a
-time algorithm. For the partial word covering
problem we obtain a -time algorithm. We
prove that, unless the Exponential Time Hypothesis is false, no
-time solution exists for either problem, which shows
that our algorithm for this case is close to optimal. We also present an
algorithm for both problems which is feasible in practice.Comment: full version (simplified and corrected); preliminary version appeared
at ISAAC 2014; 14 pages, 4 figure
Approximate Consensus in Highly Dynamic Networks: The Role of Averaging Algorithms
In this paper, we investigate the approximate consensus problem in highly
dynamic networks in which topology may change continually and unpredictably. We
prove that in both synchronous and partially synchronous systems, approximate
consensus is solvable if and only if the communication graph in each round has
a rooted spanning tree, i.e., there is a coordinator at each time. The striking
point in this result is that the coordinator is not required to be unique and
can change arbitrarily from round to round. Interestingly, the class of
averaging algorithms, which are memoryless and require no process identifiers,
entirely captures the solvability issue of approximate consensus in that the
problem is solvable if and only if it can be solved using any averaging
algorithm. Concerning the time complexity of averaging algorithms, we show that
approximate consensus can be achieved with precision of in a
coordinated network model in synchronous
rounds, and in rounds when
the maximum round delay for a message to be delivered is . While in
general, an upper bound on the time complexity of averaging algorithms has to
be exponential, we investigate various network models in which this exponential
bound in the number of nodes reduces to a polynomial bound. We apply our
results to networked systems with a fixed topology and classical benign fault
models, and deduce both known and new results for approximate consensus in
these systems. In particular, we show that for solving approximate consensus, a
complete network can tolerate up to 2n-3 arbitrarily located link faults at
every round, in contrast with the impossibility result established by Santoro
and Widmayer (STACS '89) showing that exact consensus is not solvable with n-1
link faults per round originating from the same node
Service composition in stochastic settings
With the growth of the Internet-of-Things and online Web services, more services with more capabilities are available to us. The ability to generate new, more useful services from existing ones has been the focus of much research for over a decade. The goal is, given a specification of the behavior of the target service, to build a controller, known as an orchestrator, that uses existing services to satisfy the requirements of the target service. The model of services and requirements used in most work is that of a finite state machine. This implies that the specification can either be satisfied or not, with no middle ground. This is a major drawback, since often an exact solution cannot be obtained. In this paper we study a simple stochastic model for service composition: we annotate the tar- get service with probabilities describing the likelihood of requesting each action in a state, and rewards for being able to execute actions. We show how to solve the resulting problem by solving a certain Markov Decision Process (MDP) derived from the service and requirement specifications. The solution to this MDP induces an orchestrator that coincides with the exact solution if a composition exists. Otherwise it provides an approximate solution that maximizes the expected sum of values of user requests that can be serviced. The model studied although simple shades light on composition in stochastic settings and indeed we discuss several possible extensions
Photosynthesis dependent acidification of perialgal vacuoles in theParamedum bursaria/Chlorella symbiosis. Visualization by monensin
After treatment with the carboxylic ionophore monensin theChlorella containing perialgal vacuoles of the greenParamecium bursaria swell. TheParamecium cells remain motile at this concentration for at least one day. The swelling is only observed in illuminated cells and can be inhibited by DCMU. We assume that during photosynthesis the perialgal vacuoles are acidified and that monensin exchanges H+ ions against monovalent cations (here K+). In consequence the osmotic value of the vacuoles increases. The proton gradient is believed to drive the transport of maltose from the symbiont into the host. Another but light independent effect of the monensin treatment is the swelling of peripheral alveoles of the ciliates, likewise indicating that the alveolar membrane contains an active proton pump
On the generation of equational dynamic logics for weighted imperative programs
Dynamic logic is a powerful framework for reasoning about
imperative programs. This paper extends previous work [9] on the systematic
generation of dynamic logics from the propositional to the equational
case, to capture `full-
edged' imperative programs. The generation
process is parametric on a structure specifying a notion of `weight' assigned
to programs. The paper introduces also a notion of bisimilarity
on models of the generated logics, which is shown to entail modal equivalence
with respect to the latter.POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030947. ERDF—European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 Programme and by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030947. The second author is supported in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5 and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016, of August 29, changed by Portuguese Law 57/2017, of July 19 and by UID/MAT/04106/2019 at CIDM
- …