Fault and timing assumptions in distributed systems
Research context
postgraduate concept · established · As of 2026-10-10
Crash faults stop a process; Byzantine faults permit arbitrary behavior, including inconsistent messages.
Key knowledge
Crash faults stop a process; Byzantine faults permit arbitrary behavior, including inconsistent messages. Synchronous models assume timing bounds, asynchronous models do not, and partial synchrony supplies bounds after an unknown stabilization time or unknown finite bounds. Safety forbids an incorrect result; liveness requires eventual progress in allowed runs. A timeout can suspect a slow process but cannot distinguish delay from failure in a fully asynchronous model.
Conditions and scope
- Specify authentication, message loss/duplication, durable storage, network connectivity and number/type of faulty nodes.
- A safety theorem does not automatically include a latency bound or progress during a partition.
Sources · 4
References
Sources retain their recorded scope. A source link alone does not establish verification of every statement.
- Impossibility of Distributed Consensus with One Fault (1985)Michael J. Fischer, Nancy A. Lynch and Michael S. PatersonResearch paper · PDF
- Brewer's Conjecture and the Feasibility of Consistent, Available, Partition-Tolerant Web Services (2002)Seth Gilbert and Nancy Lynch / MITResearch paper · PDF
- In Search of an Understandable Consensus Algorithm (extended version, 2014)Diego Ongaro and John Ousterhout / StanfordResearch paper · PDF
- The Byzantine Generals Problem (1982)Leslie Lamport, Robert Shostak and Marshall PeaseResearch paper · PDF
Evidence and review
Author checked this English statement, displayed equation where present and stated hypotheses against these source locations: Model definitions, admissible runs and main impossibility theorem; Definitions and asynchronous atomic read/write impossibility theorem; partial synchrony discussion; §§5–8: leader election, log matching, commit rule, durable state, membership and client linearizability; Oral-message assumptions and 3m+1 theorem; signed-message model distinction. The check is bounded to the recorded claims; no complete proof reconstruction, software proof replay or universal literature completeness is claimed.
2026-10-10 · Author source-body/statement/equation/domain check, with graph associations scoped individually. Separate independent content/source/inventory review is required before branch closure.
Entry details
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