Trade-offs in fault-containing self-stabilization.

S Ghosh, SV Pemmaraju.

Postscript Document and DVI file.


Abstract

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of constructing fault-containing, self-stabilizing protocols that allow the user to fine-tune the performance of the protocols, via the choice of values for certain program parameters. Based on the fault-history of the protocol, the user can choose appropriate values for program parameters and select desirable performance guarantees from various classes of faults. As an example, paramaterized versions of Dijkstra's K-state mutual exclusion protocol are presented and these allow the user to trade off between performance measures such as stabilization time, k-fault containment time, and token size.