Gracefully degrading consensus and k-set agreement in directed dynamic networks

Abstract

We present (This work has been supported the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project P26436 (SIC) and S11405 (RiSE).) the first consensus/k-set agreement algorithm for synchronous dynamic networks with unidirectional links, controlled by an omniscient message adversary, which automatically adapts to the actual network properties in a run: If the network is sufficiently well-connected, it solves consensus, while it degrades gracefully to general k-set agreement in less well-connected communication graphs. The actual number k of system-wide decision values is determined by the number of certain vertex-stable root components occurring in a run, which are strongly connected components without incoming links from outside. Related impossibility results reveal that our condition is reasonably close to the solvability border for k-set agreement.