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On the uncontended complexity of anonymous agreement

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Abstract

In this paper, we study uncontended complexity of anonymous k-set agreement algorithms, counting the number of memory locations used and the number of memory updates performed in operations that encounter no contention. We assume that in contention-free executions of a k-set agreement algorithm, only “fast” read and write operations are performed, and more expensive synchronization primitives, such as CAS, are only used when contention is detected. We call such concurrent implementations interval-solo-fast and derive the first nontrivial tight bounds on space complexity of anonymous interval-solo-fast k-set agreement.

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Notes

  1. Informally, an obstruction-free algorithm ensures that every operation running solo from any configuration eventually returns. An abortable algorithm ensures that every operation returns in a finite number of its own steps but, in case when it encounters contention, a special abort response can be returned.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are extremely grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thorough and constructive feedback on the submission. Very special thanks should go to Leqi Zhu for his suggestions on improving the statements and the proofs of Lemmata 1 and 2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LaBRI, UMR 5800, University of Bordeaux, 33400, Talence, France

    Claire Capdevielle, Colette Johnen & Alessia Milani

  2. LTCI, Télécom ParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, Paris, France

    Petr Kuznetsov

Authors
  1. Claire Capdevielle
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  2. Colette Johnen
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  3. Petr Kuznetsov
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  4. Alessia Milani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Petr Kuznetsov.

Additional information

Partially supported by the ANR project DESCARTES ANR-16-CE40-0023. The Petr Kuznetsov was supported by the ANR project DISCMAT, under Grant Agreement Nos. ANR-14-CE35-0010-01.

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Capdevielle, C., Johnen, C., Kuznetsov, P. et al. On the uncontended complexity of anonymous agreement. Distrib. Comput. 30, 459–468 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00446-017-0297-z

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