Message classification model

Abstract

We propose a new system model for asynchronous distributed systems that we call the message classification model. Motivation for this model is its ability 1) to support a restricted but useful form of `communication by time' by classifying messages as either `slow' or `fast' but without incorporating neither real-time clocks nor `time-outs', and 2) to describe transient and permanent network partitions. The message classification model allows the definition of different classes of classification schemes. To show that the model is indeed useful, we show how one can solve the consensus and the election problem for a certain class of message classification schemes.