oai:arXiv.org:2408.12853
Computer Science
2024
9/4/2024
Today's mainstream network timing models for distributed computing are synchrony, partial synchrony, and asynchrony.
These models are coarse-grained and often make either too strong or too weak assumptions about the network.
This paper introduces a new timing model called granular synchrony that models the network as a mixture of synchronous, partially synchronous, and asynchronous communication links.
The new model is not only theoretically interesting but also more representative of real-world networks.
It also serves as a unifying framework where current mainstream models are its special cases.
We present necessary and sufficient conditions for solving crash and Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus in granular synchrony.
Interestingly, consensus among $n$ parties can be achieved against $f \geq n/2$ crash faults or $f \geq n/3$ Byzantine faults without resorting to full synchrony.
Giridharan, Neil,Abraham, Ittai,Crooks, Natacha,Nayak, Kartik,Ren, Ling, 2024, Granular Synchrony