Chapter 13
Distributed Consensus
13.1 Introduction
Consensus problems have widespread applications in distributed computing. Before introducing the formal definitions or discussing possible solutions, we first present a few motivating examples of consensus, some of which have been visited in Chapters 7 and 13:
Example 13.1
A number of processes in a network decide to elect a leader. Each process begins with a bid for leadership. At the end, one of these processes is elected the leader, and it reflects the final decision of every process.
Example 13.2
Alice wants to transfer a sum of $1000 from her savings account in Las Vegas to a checking account in Iowa City. There are two components of this transaction: debit $1000 and credit $1000. Two distinct ...
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