Implementing Fault-Tolerant Distributed Objects

Abstract

This paper describes a technique for implementing $k$-resilient objects - distributed objects that remain available, and whose operations are guaranteed to progress to completion, despite up to $k$ site failures. The implementation is derived from the object specification automatically, and does not require any information beyond what would be required for a non-resilient, non-distributed implementation. It is therefore unnecessary for an appplications programmer to have knowledge of the complex protocols normally employed to implement fault-tolerant objects. Our technique is used in ISIS, a system being developed at Cornell to support resilient objects.