One for All and All for One: Scalable Consensus in a Hybrid Communication Model

Abstract

This paper addresses consensus in an asynchronous model where the processes are partitioned into clusters. Inside each cluster, processes can communicate through a shared memory, which favors efficiency. Moreover, any pair of processes can also communicate through a message-passing communication system, which favors scalability. In such a “hybrid communication” context, the paper presents two simple binary consensus algorithms (one based on local coins, the other one based on a common coin). These algorithms are straightforward extensions of existing message-passing randomized round-based consensus algorithms. At each round, the processes of each cluster first agree on the same value (using an underlying shared memory consensus algorithm), and then use a message-passing algorithm to converge on the same decided value. The algorithms are such that, if all except one processes of a cluster crash, the surviving process acts as if all the processes of its cluster were alive (hence the motto “one for all and all for one”). As a consequence, the hybrid communication model allows us to obtain simple, efficient, and scalable fault-tolerant consensus algorithms. As an important side effect, according to the size of each cluster, consensus can be obtained even if a majority of processes crash.