A fusion-based approach for tolerating faults in finite state machines

Given a set of n different deterministic finite state machines (DFSMs) modeling a distributed system, we examine the problem of tolerating f crash or Byzantine faults in such a system. The traditional approach to this problem involves replication and requires n · f backup DFSMs for crash faults and 2 · n · f backup DFSMs for Byzantine faults. For example, to tolerate two crash faults in three DFSMs, a replication based technique needs two copies of each of the given DFSMs, resulting in a system with six backup DFSMs. In this paper, we question the optimality of such an approach and present a generic approach called (f, m)-fusion that permits lesser number of backups than the replication based approaches. Given n different DFSMs, we examine the problem of tolerating f faults using just m additional DFSMs. We introduce the theory of fusion machines and provide an algorithm to generate backup DFSMs for both crash and Byzantine faults. Further, we have implemented these algorithms a...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: IPPS
• Authors: Vinit A. Ogale, Bharath Balasubramanian, Vijay K. Garg
• Keywords: Backup Dfsms, Byzantine Faults, Crash Faults, Distributed And Parallel Computing, IPPS 2009