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High-Level Executable Specifications of Distributed Algorithms

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Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems (SSS 2012)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7596))

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Abstract

This paper describes a method for specifying complex distributed algorithms at a very high yet executable level, focusing in particular on general principles for making properties and invariants explicit while keeping the control flow clear. This is critical for understanding the algorithms and proving their correctness. It is also critical for generating efficient implementations using invariant-preserving transformations, ensuring the correctness of the optimizations.

We have studied and experimented with a variety of important distributed algorithms, including well-known difficult variants of Paxos, by specifying them in a very high-level language with an operational semantics. In the specifications that resulted from following our method, critical properties and invariants are explicit, making the algorithms easier to understand and verify. Indeed, this helped us discover improvements to some of the algorithms, for correctness and for optimizations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA

    Yanhong A. Liu, Scott D. Stoller & Bo Lin

Authors
  1. Yanhong A. Liu
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  2. Scott D. Stoller
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  3. Bo Lin
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, 699 South Mill Avenue, 85281, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Andréa W. Richa

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Paderborn, Fürstenallee 11, 33102, Paderborn, Germany

    Christian Scheideler

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Liu, Y.A., Stoller, S.D., Lin, B. (2012). High-Level Executable Specifications of Distributed Algorithms. In: Richa, A.W., Scheideler, C. (eds) Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems. SSS 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7596. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33536-5_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33536-5_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-33535-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-33536-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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