A Reconfigurable System Architecture for Consensus-based Group Communication

Hans P. Reiser, Udo Bartlang, Franz J. Hauck

Proc. of the 17th IASTED Int. Conf. on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems (PDCS 2005) (Phoenix, AZ, USA, Nov 14-16, 2005);

Abstract

Using distributed consensus algorithms is an established way to implement group communication systems with total message ordering. This paper presents a system architecture focusing on (re-)configurability of such systems. Unlike other systems, ours can be configured to work with different failure models and low-level communication protocols without changing the application. Failure models, protocols, and their run-time parameters (e.g., timeouts) can even be re-configured at run-time without loosing consistency, especially in case of failures. Re-configuration at run-time allows for applications that adapt to access patterns and environment conditions for gaining optimal performance and fault tolerance at the same time. As re-configuration is transparent to the application logic, it may be done automatically by the system. We also present performance figures of our prototype implementation on the basis of variants of the Paxos algorithm.

BibTeX

@INPROCEEDINGS{reiser05reconfigurable,
  author = {Hans P. Reiser and Udo Bartlang and Franz J. Hauck},
  title = {A Reconfigurable System Architecture for Consensus-Based Group Communication},
  booktitle = {Proc. of the 17th IASTED Int. Conf on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems (Phoenix, AZ, USA, Nov 14-16, 2005)},
  year = {2005},
  pages = {680--686},
  publisher = {IASTED/ACTA Press},
}