Abstract

Replicating important services on multiple processors in a distributed architecture is a common technique for constructing dependable computing systems. This paper describes a communication substrate, called Consul, that facilitates the development of such systems by providing a collection of fundamental abstractions for constructing fault-tolerant programs based on replicated processing. These abstractions include a multicast service, a membership service, and a recovery service. Consul is unique in two respects. First, its services are implemented using a collection of algorithms that exploit the partial (or causal) ordering of messages exchanged in the system. Such algorithms are generally more efficient than those that depend on a total ordering of events. Second, its underlying architecture is configurable, thereby allowing a system to be structured according to the needs of the application. The paper sketches Consul's architecture, presents the algorithms used by its pr...

Citations