Understanding partitions and the 'no partition' assumption

Abstract

Discusses partitions in asynchronous message-passing systems. In such systems, slow processes and slow links can lead to virtual partitions that are indistinguishable from real ones. To overcome the impossibility of detecting crashed processes in an asynchronous system, the system model incorporates a failure suspector to detect (possibly erroneously) process failures. Based on failure suspicions, the authors give a definition of partitions that accounts for real partitions as well as virtual ones. It is shown that under certain assumptions about the process behavior, any incorrect failure suspicion inevitably partitions the system. It is then shown how to interpret the absence-of-partition assumption.<>