Abstract

This is the first part of a two-part paper in which we discuss the implementability of fairness notions in distributed systems where asynchronous processes interact via synchronous constructs -- usually called multiparty interactions . In this part we present a criterion for fairness notions and show that if a fairness notion violates the criterion, then no deterministic algorithm for scheduling multiparty interactions can satisfy the fairness notion. Conversely, the implementation is possible if the criterion is obeyed. Thus, the criterion is sufficient and necessary to guarantee the implementability of all possible fairness notions. To our knowledge, this is the first such criterion to appear in the literature. The main benet of the proposed criterion is that it reduces reasoning about a complex and concrete implementation model to reasoning about a simpler and abstract model for process interaction. To illustrate this, we use the criterion to examine several important fairness no...

Citations