An optimal solution for byzantine agreement under a hierarchical cluster-oriented mobile ad hoc network

Abstract

Mobile ad hoc NETworks (MANETs) are becoming more popular due to the advantage that they do not require any fixed infrastructure, and that communication among processors can be established quickly. For this reason, potential MANET applications include military uses, search and rescue and meetings or conferences. Therefore, the fault-tolerance and reliability of the MANET is an important issue, which needs to be considered. The problem of reaching agreement in the distributed system is one of the most important areas of research to design a fault-tolerant system. With an agreement, each correct processor can cope with the influence from other faulty components in the network to provide a reliable solution. In this research, a potential MANET with a dual failure mode is considered. The proposed protocol can use the minimum number of rounds of message exchange to reach a common agreement and can tolerate a maximum number of allowable faulty components to induce all correct processors to reach a common agreement within the MANET.