Programming Simultaneous Action Using Common Knowledge

Abstract

This work applies the theory of knowledge in distributed systems to the design of efficient fault-tolerant protocols. We define a large class of problems requiring coordinated, simultaneous action in synchronous systems, and give a method of transforming specifications of such problems into protocols that are optimal in all runs: for every possible input to the system and faculty processor behavior, these protocols are guaranteed to perform the simultaneous actions as soon as any other protocol could possibly perform them.