Distributed Algorithms: A Verbose Tour, Paperback/Fourre Sigs

Descriere

Description AN ELABORATE YET BEGINNER-FRIENDLY GUIDE TO DISTRIBUTED ALGORITHMSDistributed Algorithms, a non-trivial and highly evolving field of active research, is often presented in most publications using a heavy accompaniment of mathematical techniques and notations. Aimed squarely at beginners as well as experienced practitioners, this book attempts to demystify and explicate the subject of distributed algorithms using a highly expansive and verbose style of treatment. Covering scores of landmark algorithms in the field of distributed computing, the approach is to present and analyse each topic using a minimum of mathematical exposition, reverting instead to a fluid style of description in plain English. A mathematical presentation is avoided altogether whenever such a move does not reduce the quality of the analysis at hand. Elsewhere, the effort always is to talk and guide the reader through the relevant math without resorting to a series of equations. To backup such a style of treatment, each topic is accompanied by a multitude of examples, flowcharts, and diagrams. The book is divided into three parts; the first part deals with fundamentals, the second and largest of the three is all about algorithms specific to message passing networks, while the last one focuses on shared memory algorithms. The beginning of the book dedicates a few chapters to the basics - including a quick orientation on the underlying platform, i. e. distributed systems, their characteristics, advantages, challenges, and so on. Some of the earlier chapters also address basic algorithms and techniques relevant to distributed computing environments before moving on to progressively complex algorithms and results - en route to the later chapters in the second part which deal with widely used 'industrial-strength' protocols such as Paxos and Raft. The third part of the book does assume a basic orientation towards computer programming, and presents numerous shared memory algorithms where each o