Distributed protocols as behaviours in Erlang

Abstract

Over the years, there have been various developments in the field of distributed computing. Currently, in such context, there seems to be a paradigm shift towards a decentralized approach. This dissertation investigates a particular set of distributed algorithm: Agreement problems. These set of algorithms lend themselves very well to decentralized distributive computing. Three classes of agreement problems are investigated: Reliable Broadcast, Consensus and Atomic Commit. Algorithms tackling these problems are assessed and a common framework for the implementation of such algorithms, in Erlang, is developed. Through this framework, various agreement algorithms are implemented as reusable Erlang behaviours. Finally, a case study for these behaviours, involving a simple serverless filesystem, is built.