Abstract

We solve the consensus problem using a new class of broad-casts that are very appropriate to ad-hoc networking: every broadcast message is eventually ensured to be garbage-collected,thus freeing buffers in the resource-constrained mobile devices. We identify an impossibility result, the conditions in whicha consensus protocol that assumes normal, message-keeping broadcasts can work using the new broadcast, and the adaptation such a protocol would require when these conditions do not hold. The cost of achieving quiescent consensus, estimated through simulations, is shown to be affordable for hosting practical dependable applications.

Keywords

Consensus, Quiescent Broadcast, MANETs