Distributed systems present challenging problems of maintaining consistency of distributed data in the presence of faults. These problems are currently solved using agreement protocols that require many messages to be exchanged between processors with adverse effects on system performance. This project will investigate a different approach to the design of fault-tolerant distributed systems that avoids this message exchange, resulting in systems that are substantially more efficient. The approach is based on broadcast communication over a local area network, such as the Ethernet, and on two novel protocols, the Trans and Total protocols. Preliminary analyses indicate at least a 10-fold improvement over existing methods of reaching agreement.
