Re: [ecf-dev] Central remote server strategy

[Markus Alexander Kuppe <ecf-dev_eclipse.org@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/15/2013 07:18 PM, Scott Lewis wrote:
> More generally though...in a 'group' computing model (i.e. >= 2 group
> 'members'), there's a long-standing problem called 'distributed
> consensus'.   Distributed consensus [1] is basically the ability of all
> parties in a group to agree on the value of some data.    As simple as
> this sounds, it's not simple in general...as with some topologies (e.g.
> a network of links between group members), it can be very difficult to
> define a protocol that guarantees that all group members reach consensus
> about something as simple as what the current group membership is (i.e.
> who's 'there' or 'present' in the group).

What kind of consensus do peers in our example chat application even
need to reach? The current design simply allows peers to send a message
and no guarentee is given whether this message is (eventually) received
by 1 to n other peers. This problem is too simple to even require
consensus whatsoever and thus qualifies for a basic peer to peer design.

M.