Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 The Subject Matter

The term distributed algorithms covers a large variety of concurrent algorithms used for a wide range of applications. Originally, this term was used to refer to algorithms that were designed to run on many processors “distributed” over a large geographical area. But over the years, the usage of this term has been broadened, so that it now includes algorithms that run on local area networks and even algorithms for shared memory multiprocessors. This has happened because it has become recognized that the algorithms used in these various settings have a great deal in common.

Distributed algorithms arise in many applications, including telecommunications, distributed information processing, scientific ...

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