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Exploitation of Ljapunov Theory for Verifying Self-Stabilizing Algorithms

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Distributed Computing (DISC 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1914))

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Abstract

A particularly suitable design strategy for constructing a ro- bust distributed algorithm is to endow it with a self-stabilization pro- perty. Such a property guarantees that the system will always return to and stay within a specified set of legal states within bounded time re- gardless of its initial state. A self-stabilizing application therefore has the potential of recovering from the effects of arbitrary transient fai- lures. However, to actually verify that an application self-stabilizes can be quite tedious with current proof methodologies and is non-trivial. The self-stabilizing property of distributed algorithms exhibits interest- ing analogies to stabilizing feedback systems used in various engineering domains. In this paper we would like to show that techniques from con- trol theory, namely Ljapunov’s “Second Method,” can be used to more easily verify the self-stabilization property of distributed algorithms.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Computer Science, Darmstadt University of Technology, D-64283, Darmstadt, Germany

    Oliver Theel

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  1. Oliver Theel
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Brown University, 115 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02912, USA

    Maurice Herlihy

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Theel, O. (2000). Exploitation of Ljapunov Theory for Verifying Self-Stabilizing Algorithms. In: Herlihy, M. (eds) Distributed Computing. DISC 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1914. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-40026-5_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-40026-5_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-41143-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-40026-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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