Introduction to reliable distributed programming

de Rachid Guerraoui, Luís Rodrigues

In modern computing a program is usually distributed among several processes. The fundamental challenge when developing reliable distributed programs is to support the cooperation of processes required to execute a common task, even when some of these processes fail. Guerraoui and Rodrigues present an introductory description of fundamental reliable distributed programming abstractions as well as algorithms to implement these abstractions. The authors follow an incremental approach by first introducing basic abstractions in simple distributed environments, before moving to more sophisticated abstractions and more challenging environments. Each core chapter is devoted to one specific class of abstractions, covering reliable delivery, shared memory, consensus and various forms of agreement. This textbook comes with a companion set of running examples implemented in Java. These can be used by students to get a better understanding of how reliable distributed programming abstractions can be implemented and used in practice. Combined, the chapters deliver a full course on reliable distributed programming. The book can also be used as a complete reference on the basic elements required to build reliable distributed applications.