Transversal merge operation: a nondominated coterie construction method for distributed mutual exclusion

A coterie is a set of subsets (called quorums) of the processes in a distributed system such that any two quorums intersect with each other and is mainly used to solve the mutual exclusion problem in a quorum-based algorithm. The choice of a coterie sensitively affects the performance of the algorithm and it is known that nondominated (ND) coteries achieve good performance in terms of criteria such as availability and load. On the other hand, grid coteries have some other attractive features: 1) a quorum size is small, which implies a low message complexity, and 2) a quorum is constructible on the fly, which benefits a low space complexity. However, they are not ND coteries unfortunately. To construct ND coteries having the favorite features of grid coteries, we introduce the transversal merge operation that transforms a dominated coterie into an ND coterie and apply it to grid coteries. We call the constructed ND coteries ND grid coteries. These ND grid coteries have availability higher than the original ones, inheriting the above desirable features from them. To demonstrate this fact, we then investigate their quorum size, load, and availability, and propose a dynamic quorum construction algorithm for an ND grid coterie.     

Minimizing the maximum delay for reaching consensus in quorum-basedmutual exclusion schemes

The use of quorums is a well-known approach to achieving mutual exclusion in distributed computing systems. This approach works based on a coterie, a special set of node groups where any pair of the node groups shares at least one common node. Each node group in a coterie is called a quorum. Mutual exclusion is ensured by imposing that a node gets consensus from all nodes in at least one of the quorums before it enters a critical section. In a quorum-based mutual exclusion scheme, the delay for reaching consensus depends critically on the coterie adopted and, thus, it is important to find a coterie with small delay. Fu (1997) introduced two related measures called max-delay and mean-delay. The former measure represents the largest delay among all nodes, while the latter is the arithmetic mean of the delays. She proposed polynomial-time algorithms for finding max-delay and mean-delay optimal coteries when the network topology is a tree or a ring. In this paper, we first propose a polynomial-time algorithm for finding max-delay optimal coteries and, then, modify the algorithm so as to reduce the mean-delay of generated coteries. Unlike the previous algorithms, the proposed algorithms can be applied to systems with arbitrary topology     

Composite k-arbiters

The k-arbiter is a useful concept to solve the distributed h-out-of-k mutual exclusion problem. The distributed h-out-of-k mutual exclusion algorithms, based on the k-arbiter, have the benefits of high fault tolerance and low message cost. However, according to the definition of the k-arbiter, it is required to have a nonempty intersection among any (κ + 1) quorums in a k-arbiter. Consequently, constructing k-arbiters is difficult. The coterie join operation proposed by Neilsen and Mizuno (1992) produces a new and larger coterie by joining known coteries. By extending the coterie join operation, we first propose a k-arbiter join operation to construct a new and larger k-arbiter from known k-arbiters for a large system. Then, we derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the k-arbiter join operation to construct a nondominated joined k-arbiter. Moreover, we discuss availability properties of the joined k-arbiters. We observe that, by selecting proper k-arbiters, the joined k-arbiter can provide a higher availability than that of the original input. Finally, we propose a k-arbiter compound, operation to construct k-arbiters by using coteries and/or k-coteries. By that way, the problem of constructing k-arbiters can be reduced to the problem of constructing coteries and/or k-coteries     

Nondominated coteries on graphs

Let C and D be two distinct coteries under the vertex set V of a graph G=(V,E) that models a distributed system. Coterie C is said to G-dominate D (with respect to G) if the following condition holds: For any connected subgraph H of G that contains a quorum in D (as a subset of its vertex set), there exists a connected subgraph H' of H that contains a quorum in C. A coterie C on a graph G is said to be G-nondominated (G-ND) (with respect to G) if no coterie D(≠C) on G G-dominates C. Intuitively, a G-ND coterie consists of irreducible quorums. This paper characterizes G-ND coteries in graph theoretical terms, and presents a procedure for deciding whether or not a given coterie C is G-ND with respect to a given graph G, based on this characterization. We then improve the time complexity of the decision procedure, provided that the given coterie C is nondominated in the sense of Garcia-Molina and Barbara (1985). Finally, we characterize the class of graphs G on which the majority coterie is G-ND     

Coterie join operation and tree structured k-coteries

The coterie join operation proposed by M.L. Neilsen and M. Mizuno (1994) produces, from a k-coterie and a coterie, a new k-coterie. For the coterie join operation, this paper first shows 1) a necessary and sufficient condition to produce a nondominated k-coterie (more accurately, a nondominated k-semicoterie satisfying nonintersection property) and 2) a sufficient condition to produce a k-coterie with higher availability. By recursively applying the coterie join operation in such a way that the above conditions hold, we define nondominated k-coteries, called tree structured k-coteries, the availabilities of which are thus expected to be very high. This paper then proposes a new k-mutual exclusion algorithm that effectively uses a tree structured k-coterie, by extending Agrawal and El Abbadi's tree algorithm. The number of messages necessary for k processes obeying the algorithm to simultaneously enter the critical section is approximately bounded by k log(n/k) in the best case, where n is the number of processes in the system     

Generating and approximating nondominated coteries

A coterie, which is used to realize mutual exclusion in a distributed system is a family C of incomparable subsets such that every pair of subsets in C has at least one element in common. Associate with a family of subsets C a positive (i.e., monotone) Boolean function f_c such that f_c(x)=1 if the Boolean vector x is equal to or greater than the characteristic vector of some subset in C, and 0 otherwise. It is known that C is a coterie if and only if f_c is dual-minor, and is a nondominated (ND) coterie if and only if f_c is self-dual. We introduce an operator ρ, which transforms a positive self-dual function into another positive self-dual function, and the concept of almost-self-duality, which is a close approximation to self-duality and can be checked in polynomial time (the complexity of checking positive self-duality is currently unknown). After proving several interesting properties of them, we propose a simple algorithm to check whether a given positive function is self-dual or not. Although this is not a polynomial algorithm, it is practically efficient in most cases. Finally, we present an incrementally polynomial algorithm that generates all positive self-dual functions (ND coteries) by repeatedly applying p operations. Based on this algorithm, all ND coteries of up to seven variables are computed     

Recognizing nondominated coteries and wr-coteries by availability

Coterie is a widely accepted concept for solving the mutual exclusion problem. Nondominated coteries are an important class of coteries which have better performance than dominated coteries. The performance of a coterie is usually measured by availability. Higher availability of a coterie exhibits greater ability to tolerate node or communication link failures. In this paper, we demonstrate a way to recognize nondominated coteries using availability. By evaluating the availability of a coterie instead of using a formal proof, the coterie can be recognized as a nondominated coterie or not. Moreover, with regard to wr-coterie, a concept for solving the replica control problem, we also present a similar result for recognizing nondominated wr-coteries. Finally, we apply our results to some well-known coteries and wr-coteries     

Delay-optimal quorum consensus for distributed systems

Given a set of nodes S, a coterie is a set of pairwise intersecting subsets of S. Each element in a coterie is called a quorum. Mutual exclusion in a distributed system can be achieved if each request is required to gel consensus from a quorum of nodes. This technique of quorum consensus is also used for replicated distributed database systems, and bicoteries and wr-coteries have been defined to capture the requirements of read and write operations in user transactions. The author is interested in finding coteries, bicoteries, and wr-coteries with optimal communication delay. The protocols take into account the network topology. They design delay-optimal quorum consensus protocols for network topologies of trees, rings, and clustered networks     

Average probe complexity in quorum systems

This paper discusses the probe complexity of randomized algorithms and the deterministic average case probe complexity for some classes of nondominated coteries, including majority, crumbling walls, tree, wheel and hierarchical quorum systems, and presents upper and lower bounds for the probe complexity of quorum systems in these classes.     

Obtaining coteries that optimize the availability of replicateddatabases

Techniques for implementing the coterie scheme and for obtaining optimal coteries for a system are presented. Central to the techniques is the notion of an acceptance set, which is an alternative representation of the information contained in a coterie. Using this concept, the coterie scheme can be implemented efficiently, and an optimal coterie for a system can be obtained more directly. The problem of determining an optimal acceptance set is formulated as a sparse zero-one linear programming problem. Hence, the optimization problem can be handled using the very rich class of existing techniques for solving such problems. Experimental results indicate that the optimization approach is feasible for up to eight nodes at least. The ways in which the scheme and the optimization approach can be used for systems that distinguish between read and write operations are indicated     

A geometric approach for constructing coteries and k-coteries

Quorum-based mutual exclusion algorithms are resilient to node and communication line failures. Recently, some mutual exclusion algorithms successfully use logical structures to construct coteries with small quorums sizes. In this paper, we introduce a geometric approach on dealing with the logical structures and present some useful geometric properties for constructing coteries and k-coteries. Based on those geometric properties, a logical structure named three-sided graph is proposed to provide a new scheme for constructing coteries with small quorums: The smallest quorum size is O(√N) in a homogeneous system with N nodes and O(1) in a heterogeneous system. In addition, we also extend the three-sided graph to the O-sided graph for constructing k-coteries     

An adaptive high-order neural tree for pattern recognition

A new neural tree model, called adaptive high-order neural tree (AHNT), is proposed for classifying large sets of multidimensional patterns. The AHNT is built by recursively dividing the training set into subsets and by assigning each subset to a different child node. Each node is composed of a high-order perceptron (HOP) whose order is automatically tuned taking into account the complexity of the pattern set reaching that node. First-order nodes divide the input space with hyperplanes, while HOPs divide the input space arbitrarily, but at the expense of increased complexity. Experimental results demonstrate that the AHNT generalizes better than trees with homogeneous nodes, produces small trees and avoids the use of complex comparative statistical tests and/or a priori selection of large parameter sets.     

结合集中式与分布式特征的多路径QoS组播路由协议

提出了一个结合集中式算法与分布式算法优点的多路径启发式QoS组播路由算法和协议,它以单播路由协议OSPF传播链路的代价信息为基础,运用最小代价Dijkstra算法计算端节点到当前在树节点的最小代价路径,然后启动一个分布式计算过程得到一个可选路径集,加入节点通过一个综合性启发式选择其中的最佳路径连接到组播树．算法能够有效地支持延时和带宽受限的代价优化组播树构造,具有无环选路、呼叫接收成功率高、呼叫建立时间短、伸缩性好等特点．     

On multilevel voting

Summary In a distributed system mutual exclusion is often used to maintain consistency when restricted operations are performed. Mechanisms guaranteeing mutual exclusions should be both resilient and efficient. Resiliency implies high resource availability in the face of failures, while efficiency implies low overhead incurred by performing restricted operations. In this paper, we propose and study a general paradigm, called multilevel voting, which provides a general framework to assist in the design of resilient and efficient mutual exclusion mechanisms. The proposed method uses multiple level quorum consensus. Unlike another method based on the use of multiple quorum consensus, the proposed model only contains one type of integrity constraints. This has the benefit of being conceptually simple and easy to reason about. The strong resemblance with the traditional quorum consensus makes it easy for the proposed paradigm to embed any technique based on traditional quorum schemes. We show that the proposed model represents the exact class of coteries. This means that not only does it have all the power of coteries, but also all schemes under the model are correct. Thus, should the need arise, we can interchange two schemes freely without using any extra mechanisms to ensure correctness. We study a number of issues that have impact on performance such as the degree of a multilevel scheme and the order of a coterie. We explain how the model can be extended also to model the schemes for the synchronization of read and write of replicated data. We provide algorithms for the design of multilevel schemes in the context of mutual exclusion and that of read and write of replicated data. J. Tang received the M.S. degree in computer science from the University of Iowa in 1983 and the Ph.D degree in computer science from the Pennsylvania State University in 1988. Since 1988, he has been an assistant professor with the Department of Computer Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. His current research interests include distributed computing, fault tolerance in distributed systems, database modeling and multidatabase systems.This work was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, individual operating grant OGP0041916     

A Token-Based Distributed Group Mutual Exclusion Algorithm with Quorums

The group mutual exclusion problem is a generalization of mutual exclusion problem such that a set of processes in the same group can enter critical section simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a distributed algorithm for the group mutual exclusion problem in asynchronous message passing distributed systems. Our algorithm is based on tokens, and a process that obtains a token can enter critical section. For reducing message complexity, it uses coterie as a communication structure when a process sends a request messages. Informally, coterie is a set of quorums, each of which is a subset of the process set, and any two quorums share at least one process. The message complexity of our algorithm is $O(|Q|)$ in the worst case, where $|Q|$ is a quorum size that the algorithm adopts. Performance of the proposed algorithm is presented by analysis and discrete event simulation. Especially, the proposed algorithm achieves high concurrency, which is a performance measure for the number of processes that can be in critical section simultaneously.     

High-dimensional similarity joins

Many emerging data mining applications require a similarity join between points in a high-dimensional domain. We present a new algorithm that utilizes a new index structure, called the ε tree, for fast spatial similarity joins on high-dimensional points. This index structure reduces the number of neighboring leaf nodes that are considered for the join test, as well as the traversal cost of finding appropriate branches in the internal nodes. The storage cost for internal nodes is independent of the number of dimensions. Hence, the proposed index structure scales to high-dimensional data. We analyze the cost of the join for the ε tree and the R-tree family, and show that the ε tree will perform better for high-dimensional joins. Empirical evaluation, using synthetic and real-life data sets, shows that similarity join using the ε tree is twice to an order of magnitude faster than the R⁺ tree, with the performance gap increasing with the number of dimensions. We also discuss how some of the ideas of the ε tree can be applied to the R-tree family. These biased R-trees perform better than the corresponding traditional R-trees for high-dimensional similarity joins, but do not match the performance of the ε tree     

Performance characterization of the tree quorum algorithm

The tree quorum algorithm, which logically organizes the sites in a system to a tree structure, is an efficient and fault-tolerant solution for distributed mutual exclusion. In this paper, the performance characteristics of the tree quorum algorithm is analyzed. A refinement algorithm is proposed to refine a logical tree structure by eliminating nodes or subtrees which do not improve the performance. Thus the refined tree performs better than the original     

一种新的Ad Hoc网络中节约能量的广播路由协议

移动AdHoc网络中移动节点通过电池来供应能量,如果部分电池的能量被耗尽,整个网络将变成多个分离的网络,网络的生命周期减小。在路由协议的设计中如何有效地使用能量、延长网络的生命周期有重要的意义。论文对已知的节约能量的广播路由算法进行了讨论,并从平衡节点的能量消耗的角度出发,提出了一种新的节约能量的路由算法AMLE。AMLE通过Prim算法构造一个具有MLE(MinimumLongestEdge)性质的广播树,并通过区域预测机制来维护广播树,在不增加节点总的能量消耗的前提下平衡各节点的能量消耗。     

An evolutionary approach to generalized biobjective traveling salesperson problem

We consider the generalized biobjective traveling salesperson problem, where there are a number of nodes to be visited and each node pair is connected by a set of edges. The final route requires finding the order in which the nodes are visited (tours) and finding edges to follow between the consecutive nodes of the tour. We exploit the characteristics of the problem to develop an evolutionary algorithm for generating an approximation of nondominated points. For this, we approximate the efficient tours using approximate representations of the efficient edges between node pairs in the objective function space. We test the algorithm on several randomly-generated problem instances and our experiments show that the evolutionary algorithm approximates the nondominated set well.     

Faster joins, self-joins and multi-way joins using join indices

We propose a new algorithm, called Stripe-join, for performing a join given a join index. Stripe-join is inspired by an algorithm called ‘Jive-join’ developed by Li and Ross. Stripe-join makes a single sequential pass through each input relation, in addition to one pass through the join index and two passes through a set of temporary files that contain tuple identifiers but no input tuples. Stripe-join performs this efficiently even when the input relations are much larger than main memory, as long as the number of blocks in main memory is of the order of the square root of the number of blocks in the participating relations. Stripe-join is particularly efficient for self-joins. To our knowledge, Stripe-join is the first algorithm that, given a join index and a relation significantly larger than main memory, can perform a self-join with just a single pass over the input relation and without storing input tuples in intermediate files. Almost all the I/O is sequential, thus minimizing the impact of seek and rotational latency. The algorithm is resistant to data skew. It can also join multiple relations while still making only a single pass over each input relation. Using a detailed cost model, Stripe-join is analyzed and compared with competing algorithms. For large input relations, Stripe-join performs significantly better than Valduriez's algorithm and hash join algorithms. We demonstrate circumstances under which Stripe-join performs significantly better than Jive-join. Unlike Jive-join, Stripe-join makes no assumptions about the order of the join index.