Authors:
Idit Keidar and
Danny Dolev.
In the Journal of Computer and System Sciences (JCSS)
special issue with selected papers from PODS 1995,
57(3) pages 309-324. December 1998.
Abstract:
This paper presents a new atomic commitment protocol, enhanced
three phase commit (E3PC), that always allows a quorum in the
system to make progress. Previously suggested quorum-based protocols
(e.g., the quorum-based three phase commit (3PC) (Skeen, 1982)) allow
a quorum to make progress in case of one failure. If failures
cascade, however, and the quorum in the system is ``lost'' (i.e., at a
given time no quorum component exists), a quorum can later become
connected and still remain blocked. With our protocol, a connected
quorum never blocks. E3PC is based on the quorum-based 3PC, and it
does not require more time or communication than 3PC. We describe how
this protocol can be exploited in a replicated database setting,
making the database always available to a majority of the sites.
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