The performance of the consensus algorithm running on FDDI

This paper presents an application of Hierarchical Coloured Timed Petri Nets to the modelling and the performance evaluation of a distributed consensus algorithm. We took a top down modular approach to manage the complexity of the considered protocols. The termination time of the consensus algorithm is mainly set by the communications cost, i.e. by the timing characteristics of the communication network. In a simplified way, the network latency is taken into account in the system model. As the underlying physical network we have considered FDDI. By simulating the consensus Petri net model, it is possible to evaluate the termination time of the consensus algorithm. 1 Introduction In asynchronous distributed systems message delays and relative processor speeds are not bounded. Since there is neither shared memory nor global clock, communication and synchronization between processes on different sites are done by message passing, through a network. Providing fault-tolerance in asynchronou..